Carnate Thingy
by Thisisarealtagwhy
Summary: Wealth, fame, power, the man who had acquired everything in this world, the Pirate King, Monkey D. Luffy! But alas every pirate and their crew must die, the Straw Hat pirates perished alongside their captain, but is this the end of their story? Follow Monkey D. L- I mean Harry Potter and his friends through this New New World.
1. Chapter 1

_Updated A/N as of 4/01/17, yo y'all. In the final chapter I said I'd start editing the story to accommodate for things I hadn't yet seen once I became up to date with One Piece. So surprise! I'm up to date and spent a day updating the chapters, I'll be adding the other ones as well. SugarPieCrumbles pointed out a lot of mistakes I made throughout the story so I have edited those, however, if you see any I have missed please feel free to point them out. If you are one of the people who have already read the fic then I apologize for updating this, not much has changed through the actual story but I cleaned up some of the things that made me cringe while I read it._

 _Anyways, on another note, for the newbies this fic contains spoilers for EVERYTHING. Please enjoy the story._

 **Now, obviously One Piece does not belong to me, neither does Harry Potter. (Always put disclaimer on your fanfiction kids, *brownie points if you get that reference*)**

* * *

Wealth, fame, power, the man who had acquired everything in this world, the Pirate King, Monkey D. Luffy!

Monkey D. Luffy was one of the greatest men to have ever lived during the great Pirate Age, he began off with a small crew beginning with a swordsman intent on achieving his goal, one that was almost of the same calibre as Luffy's goal to become King of the Pirates.

His fleet is known to give terrors to the marines and their enemies alike. When somebody imposes that skull with a straw-hat, their fate has been sealed, they will die a long painful death for dare threatening the beliefs and ideals that the Straw Hats grasp.

However, the Straw Hat crew was also known for their kindness towards those suffering and _never_ let a friend or ally suffer. Almost everybody who had met them understood their undying sense of morality and justice that was absent in most other ruthless pirate crews.

The Straw Hats achieved a great deal during their life-span, accumulating the One Piece left behind by Gold D. Roger, the undisputed – until Luffy that is – King of the Pirates. The bounties that were placed on their heads were incredible, beyond anything the world had seen.

However, all lives must end eventually and one day the original Straw Hats and their leader were inevitably captured and executed before a great audience that had gathered with the same morbid curiosity that drives all to see an execution of yet another pirate crew.

Sadly the members of the crew were executed first, saving the best for last. The King of the Pirates watched all of his closest friends be executed from chains of sea prism before the cold sweet embrace of Death took him away for good. But even after watching his closest friends die, Monkey D. Luffy was smiling, he grinned for there was no tomorrow for him or his crew.

His final words were simple, "To my remaining friends and allies, thank you for everything!" he did not disclose the location of the legendary One Piece, simply stating that; "You have to guess! Shishishi!"

And that was how the first death of Monkey D. Luffy occurred, he died like a true 'D'.

* * *

Centuries later (however it seemed like not a second had passed for him) Monkey D. Luffy awoke in the body of a small child (no older than 5 months to be precise). _"What the hell is going on?"_ Unfortunately, not a word escaped from his mouth, only a gentle gurgle that babies often emitted.

 _"Where are all my friends?"_ He questioned silently, remembering the last events of his last life. _"Damn this sucks."_ He thought, all of those years spent building up to become the Pirate King.

He sighed, what was even happening right now? He definitely just was stabbed straight through the heart from both sides, he had not expected anything like this to occur. Well, if he was back and apparently a small child, it meant that his crew must be experiencing similar findings, he would find them one day.

 _"Well this is… unexpected."_ Then he laughed and was satisfied to hear it come out, he even grinned his toothless smile as wide as he could, laughing again at the feeling of his unused facial muscles burn at the simple movement.

"Aww, aren't you the cutest?" A woman with beautiful auburn hair smiled at Luffy filling him with a warmth making him recognise that this was this life's version of his mother. She cooed gently so Luffy cooed back and giggled when the lady made abnormal faces at him.

A man with slicked hair and glasses entered the room, in his grasp was a newspaper WITH MOVING PEOPLE! It was one of the damn coolest thing Luffy had seen in his lifetime and he had seen some pretty cool things. "Naw, Lily he has your eyes." He smiled fondly at Luffy and Lily exchanged a look with him.

"I just hope he doesn't have your penchant for trouble mister." Lily said laughing gently, the sound reminding Luffy of soft wind chimes.

James laughed in response and replied, "Well young Harry, you hear that? Better become a prankster and be like your old man, I will protect you from the wrath of your mother."

Luffy laughed, _"Harry huh? Well it could have been a lot worse."_ His mother Lily instantly put on a scolding face that Luffy could tell was just for show. "We'll see about that, it'll be you hiding behind your son."

They were both laughing, Luffy memorised the scene, every little detail that a novice would be careless and miss, it was a wondrous memory and Harry (Luffy) would treasure it like real treasure.

But alas, fate is a cruel mistress and Luffy watched as both of his parents were murdered in front of him, he had not felt this helpless since Marineford, hell even watching his friends be executed was a similar experience, he simply was not strong enough to act, the body he was in was nothing like his previous body that he had worked for _years_ to achieve that level of strength.

The _thing_ glided into the room, intent on destroying Luffy, but when it raised its' wand the curse that had stolen his family's lives away seemed to backfire, Luffy suspected that Lily had something to do with it, she always had been so powerful.

So he became the boy who lived, well the boy who twice lived technically, including his past life. He barely remembered the ride with an apparent half-giant, he had been too busy crying in bursts and trying to remember happy moments of both lives.

All of the adventures he had gone on with his nakama were happy memories but they were faintly bittersweet; they were another reminder of what he had lost and would probably never regain. However, all of the new memories that he had created with James and Lily also made him smile with nostalgia (only for him to begin bawling again).

* * *

"Get up! Get up now!" His aunt screeched as she slammed her wooden spoon against his door, well, door was an overstatement, it was more a hole that happened to lead to his hell ho- I mean room.

"Ugh" Luffy managed to groan before stretching his lips into a familiar grin that had yet to fade, today was going to be filled with chores and hardship but it was better than the alternative of nothing.

He got up stretching to (almost) abnormal lengths, letting his joints crack in ways that Chopper would undoubtedly yell at him for. He walked through the disgusting hallways that reeked of bleach and perfume and made sure to set the table for breakfast, he had been banned from the kitchen after a particularly disastrous incident where the entire house had been set on fire and it took five fire trucks to quench it.

It was only 6:00 as of right now and Luffy was seriously considering just dropping off to sleep, he could become a narcoleptic like… it didn't matter who he just wanted to sleep dammit.

"Argh I'm so hungry." He moaned clutching his stomach not so dramatically, he hadn't been allowed to eat in a while. The Dursleys were cruel people who were polar opposites of Lily and James. Where Lily had been kind and beautiful, Aunt Petunia was a cruel vicious woman with a neck long enough to catch the rudest gossip on everyone, she reminded him of a vulture.

James had been mischievous and very strong, he had not possessed the same level of intellect as his wife but it was still fairly high ranking. Uncle Vernon was a pudgy, red-faced man with an apparent lack of manner, he was incessantly greedy and always refused to acknowledge his name.

But Dudley took the cake, literally and figuratively, he was almost as fat as his father and used his weight and size to push Luffy about, he reminded Luffy of that stuck up blond boy, Hermodd? Was that his name? But then again, that was before the poor soul had been trained with Coby by his grandfather (poor guys).

But Dudley was spoiled and if he did not get his way there was a temper tantrum and Luffy would often take the brunt of his aggression, not that it actually hurt, after all, his body was made of rubber and would absorb the weak punches.

Finally 7:00 a.m. came about and Vernon and Dudley waddled into the suburban kitchen sitting at their respective seats. Dudley sat in front of a television, eyes already glued to its small screen. Vernon had a newspaper in his grasp and sat opposite Dudley, occasionally sending sleepy glares in Luffy's direction. Luffy carefully put the correct serving out of bacon, egg, sausage and hash brown. "Mummy, I want another hash brown, make _him_ give me one of his." Dudley whined giving a particular hard glare and smug smirk in Luffy's direction.

"Of course sweety, anything for my Diddlekins." Petunia said in her overly sweet high pitched voice, it immediately returned to a growl. "Well don't just stand there get my son what he wants."

Luffy gritted his teeth and thought of all the ways he could steal some food later, the only comfort of losing that hash brown was that he knew that Sanji's cooking was much better than it. When he found him again (because he would) he would eat all of his favourite dishes, lots of meat.

That was also another comfort, he hadn't stolen his bacon, his oh so precious meat. Luffy scoffed down his breakfast before Dudley could obtain any more of it. He giggled under his breath as he imagined Dudley as a pig while he was eating his bacon.

"Boy, we're going out today to get Dudley his presents for tomorrow, I expect to see the house so clean that it sparkles." While he was talking Vernon pointed a sausage finger in his direction. "And no funny business or food."

"Yeah no problem _sir._ " He refrained from calling him "old geezer", the last time he said that he had been locked inside the cupboard for a whole week! And only water and bread as sustenance, it was literally the same as a prison.

When the rude residents of the house left Luffy laughed "Shishishishi. This is gonna be a piece of cake."

He clapped his hands and shot his hands to the empty plates, "Gomu gomu no grab!" the plates were picked up and all but thrown into the sink, however Luffy made sure not to smash any this time.

When Luffy had discovered his powers had been retained through the carnate thingy, he had been absolutely overjoyed. Going as far as to swing across the support beams for fun in his tiny house, it also made chores a lot easier and instead he was able to dedicate his time to reshaping his body to how it had been _before_. However he had been extremely disappointed to discover that he lacked any muscle and his Haki was not working, and neither were any of the other gears!

He was in a different body that was not built to really create muscles and it did not have good stamina either.

Living where he was certainly didn't help either, living in a forest had been quite good training, that coupled with the hundred fights a day policy Ace, Sabo and he had adopted ensured that he became strong.

So living in a suburbia house with a family that didn't want him definitely did not bode well for his physical properties. But despite all of this he still trained as hard as he could.

He still had a long way to go of course, apparently pirates were long dead and gone and his powers would literally be thought of as Devilish or god (Petunia) forbid abnormal.

As it was they weren't even feeding him enough and he often now understood what Sanji had said about eating when there was food and never wasting it. Unfortunately, Luffy had gotten used to the lack of sustenance and that was a fact he sorely resented, he loved having a huge appetite.

Luffy hummed one of the pirate tunes Shanks had taught him as he washed up the dishes, it always kept him in high spirits. He even repetitively tapped the plates together to create a beat.

He made quick work of the dishes and soon they were neatly tucked away in the trap of OCD that Petunia had created. Next he scrubbed the bathroom clean, gagging at the scent of bleach and other chemicals. The bathroom was his least favourite chore so the Dursleys made sure to always leave it for him.

After escaping the toxic scent permeating the bathroom Luffy made his way outside to clear his nostrils and de-weed to garden. "He shoots and he scores! Shishishi!" Luffy threw his ball of crumpled weeds into the bin in one shot.

"Ahhh." Luffy completed all of his mundane chores and was now relaxing in the shade that their ugly trees offered him, soaking up the spring heat and consuming cold water.

He heard a car door slam and quickly got everything packed up before. "Gomu gomu no rocket!" and zoomed to his cupboard. He barely had locked himself in when the door was harshly thrown open by none other than his awful Uncle.

Thankfully the remainder of the day went by in a blur. Next thing he knew; the stairs were painfully creaking under the weight of his overweight cousin. "Wake up we're going to the zoo!" Dudley screamed jumping up and down making sawdust rain down upon Luffy, said boy groaned intensely.

Luffy tried – he really did – to prepare himself for the whining pathetic mess that his cousin would most likely be when he made it to their shrine; the kitchen.

Sure enough Dudley was complaining about not getting enough presents. He wanted to snap that neither Ace, Sabo nor he had ever celebrated birthdays, Christmases or even Easter. He didn't celebrate his birthday on the Going Merry or Thousand Sunny either. Nobody had. However, they always had done Christmas, it was tradition.

But he held his tongue and silently fumed on the inside, instead he began to hum the song that Brook had most often played, bony fingers (ha skeleton joke) dancing over piano keys and jovially singing out, it was one that usually occupied dinner time aboard the Thousand Sunny.

Later he realised that the song Brook had been playing was also a promise to an old friend – one the skeleton had finally met at the end of their journey before their demise.

"Come on boy we don't have all day." Vernon all but shouted at Luffy who snapped out of his reverie and followed the disgusting group of people he suffered calling 'family'.

Luffy yawned over the excited chatter and whining of the Dursley family, he could finally go to the zoo! He had heard of such places where all animals were gathered so that travellers didn't have to go far to see them! It reminded Luffy of a dream a certain chef had one day of seeing the All Blue, the zoo was leaning particularly close to it and Luffy couldn't wait to see his friends face when he told him that such a place existed.

Luffy jumped up and down excitedly in his car seat, momentarily forgetting his place, after a stern pat (slap) on his head the hyperactive boy calmed down and breathed slowly.

Finally they arrived at the zoo and Luffy grinned his trademark smile, stretching his face abnormally. "Shishishi! This is amazing!" He proclaimed loudly to the amusement of parents nearby.

Vernon's face was practically purple by the time Luffy stopped admiring the _outside_ of the zoo. "No funny business from you boy! I see one thing go wrong and you'll wish you were never born!" Whoop, and there goes the sausage finger again.

"Shishishi, of course sir!" Luffy grinned (if possible) wider and accepted the glares from his cousin, aunt and uncle. "Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to explore!"

A new adventure in a new place was _always_ an exciting experience, who knew who he was going to meet (he knew who he _wanted_ to meet but making new friends was fun too)? And hopefully there was some meat he could snag whilst being ninja.

His sandals (yes, only Luffy would wear sandals in England) slapped harshly against the concrete of the walkway, the enclosures where the animals were held were of similar style. That is omitting the open enclosures that held penguins, crocodiles (there weren't any banana ones) and big cats.

One particular animal caught his attention. It was a snake and it was HUGE! It seemed to be sleeping as of now. "I know that it looks like you're sleeping but you're just waiting for the next unlucky prey to fall into your grasp. I WILL NOT BE THAT PREY!" He shouted proudly earning odd glances from adults and children alike.

Oh and the Dursleys were a few feet away, however the intensity of their glares made him feel like they were right beside him. And then amongst the situation the snake rose to look him in the eye. "I accept that King of the Piratesssss." The s dragged on but Luffy was more concerned about the actual words.

"You can talk?! That is so cool! And you bet your scaly hide that I'm King of the Pirates, Monkey D. Luffy, that's me!" In his excitement Luffy forgot two key factors, one, the Dursleys were watching him with mutinous expressions and two, the snake could speak! And he could understand what the snake was saying!

"Mummy! Daddy! Look it's moving!" And then a boulder rushed past Luffy and slammed into the glass, pressing his nose against it, trying to gawk at the snake better.

Luffy was so mad, why the hell did he think that he could personally ruin anything good in Luffy's miserable life. He was so godamn mad that he saw red, and suddenly a resounding 'splash!' echoed through the zoo and suddenly people were screaming at the snake that slithered its way through to escape.

"Thanksss." The snake hissed as it trailed past Luffy.

"No problem! Good luck snakey!" He yelled waving at the snake.

And then Luffy started to laugh, because somehow his cousin was stuck in the snake enclosure and it was taking many peoples efforts to remove the morbidly obese boy.

And Vernon fixed the strongest glare he could on the young boy, Luffy in turn, grinned back. "Huh, that disappearing glass was really weird." Luffy muttered, contemplating, thinking turned out to be too hard so he shrugged his shoulders and watched with unbridled amusement as his cousin was finally pulled from the enclosure.

His amusement lasted all the way back to the house, when they arrived and the "precious" Dudley was secured in many blankets and drinking hot chocolate. Then Uncle Vernon rounded on him "What the hell was that?!" He hissed, ironically sounding like a snake.

"What was what?" Luffy replied blinking blankly at his current guardian.

"I warned you boy! No funny business!" Vernon was progressing slowly from red to purple, a frightening process that made Luffy worry (hope) that he was suffocating.

"I didn't do anything though!" Luffy yelled back with twice as much vigour.

"Then what happened?!" Vernon roared back, spittle flying from his disgusting maw.

"I don't know! One second the glass was there and then it was gone, and then it was back again! It was almost like magic!" Luffy yelled back, he was used to yelling matches, sure they usually ended up in punishment but it always was fun.

"There is no such thing!" Vernon screamed and shoved him into the cupboard, locking the door securely.

"ARGHH!" Luffy screamed into his pillow. "Stupid hippopotamus and his stupid vulture of a wife."

He knew that they really couldn't be _too_ mad at him for long because it really wasn't his fault.

Those thoughts accompanied him to sleep, surely enough at the usual time he was rudely awoken by his aunt unlocking the door and whispering harshly for him to get his lazy out of bed (if it could even be called that).

Luffy dragged himself out and set the table as per usual, he waited around until 7:00 a.m. and when his Uncle and cousin waddled in he served scrambled egg and toast. "Go get the mail for me boy." Uncle Vernon said, even that effort made him go purple and caused spittle fly.

Luffy still wasn't quite awake so he refrained from saying anything, instead nodding obediently, he looked through the letters, bank letter, brochure for the supermarket, postcard, letter to Mr Harry Potter, drill lice- wait a second. Luffy pulled the letter out cautiously looking at it.

It was made of the kind of parchment that Nami would always have around and it had a wax seal that had a badger, a snake, lion and an eagle. Huh, that was new, he shrugged and instead shoved it under his shirt, no doubt would the Dursleys confiscate it.

"What took you so long?" Vernon inquired viciously.

"Nothing sir, just looking at this _spectacular_ morning." He said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

The day passed as most days do in this household, a day spent cleaning the house and the hours that were not consumed by housework were spent doing exercise, he had never really understood Zoro's obsession with training but as of now his mind and body were weak and he had to rectify it, if not for his sake then for his crew's.

Later that night he finally removed the letter from its hiding place under his pillow, the front was surprising, it read:

 _Mr H Potter  
The Cupboard under the Stairs  
4 Privet Drive  
Little Whinging  
Surrey_

Well… this was a new one, it even stated the fact that he lived under the stairs, Luffy stared at it a little longer and then proceeded to open it.

 _Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore  
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

 _Dear Mr Potter,_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.  
Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

 _Yours sincerely,_

Minerva McGonagall  
Deputy Headmistress

Almost nothing in the letter made sense and Luffy quelled the rising disappoint in the letter not being from any of his friends. But the thing that stood out the most was magic! He had been accepted to a magic school?! But how was he supposed to get there? Where was he going to get his equipment from?

He slept on those questions, hand curled tightly around the letter from the magic school, he'd be damned if he let it go without a fight.

"Get up!" His aunt griped at him at the appointed time, but when he did not immediately get up she opened the door. "Well what are you waiting for!?"

Her words trailed off as she caught the sight of the letter, he eyes widening comically, jaw opening and closing like a fish and her skin turned an ashen pale. "Where did you get that?" She screeched, snapping out of her stupor and reaching down to try and remove the letter.

"It's for me! You can't have it!" He yelled, snatching his precious letter away from her reaching hands.

"No! You will not be going to that god awful school!" She yelled eventually snatching the letter away and tearing it into shreds.

"NO! You bastard!" Luffy screamed, eye watering from the sight.

"How dare you!" A roar was heard through the house, sure enough Vernon waddled through. "We gave you a home, a room of your own and we fed you and this is how you repay us!? How dare you speak to my wife like that!"

"Vernon _they_ contacted him via letter! I tore the blasted thing into shreds but the point stands." Petunia grasped his beefy arm and looked the perfect part of a petrified wife.

Luffy remained silent, his only way to get out of this miserable hell hole was through whoever sent that letter. Tears began to form in his eyes, "No, that was my only way to find them… my friends." He murmured, blinking rapidly to clear his eyes.

"Your what? Did I hear you say friends? I must have been mistaken because you don't _have_ any friends." Vernon asked, eyes narrowed to slits conveying his suspicion.

"You know what? Screw you Vernon, screw you, your wife and your son. You're all pigs and vultures and I would much prefer that you dropped dead. I have put up with all of your crap for _years_ but there is only so much one can deal with when I know that my friends are out there. Make no mistake I _will_ find the members of the Straw Hat Pirates and my allies." Luffy said, his voice gaining a dangerous edge. "And if magic exists in this world than that means there are much easier routes to take to find my friends. If you get in the way of my dream you will regret it you miserable excuse of a family."

Both Vernon and Petunia had backed up at the look in the boys' eyes, that look that was more often displayed on that of criminals. "You- you freak!" Petunia screeched. "If you go to that damned school you will _never_ be allowed into this household again!"

Luffy shrugged. "Fine by me, I'll see you later." And with that he walked out of the cursed house and onto the streets of Little Whinging. However, he did not make it far, a man that was very old and garnered an extremely long and white beard approached him.

"Hello Mr Potter." The man stated warmly, blue eyes twinkling in the early morning streetlight. "My name is Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore and I am the headmaster of Hogwarts. Would you care for a lemon drop?"

Luffy waved the proffered lemon drop away "Uhh, not to be rude but what are you doing out here?" He asked perplexed, how did this guy even know where to find him exactly and how did he get here so quickly?

"Well, Mr Potter, can I call you Harry? Very well Harry, you are a wizard, and you are a particularly special wizard, the only one to ever survive death." Albus continued, surprised when the information did not seem to faze the young boy.

"Really? Well that doesn't explain what you're doing here." Albus chuckled on the inside, this boy was quite perceptive.

"I have been keeping a close eye on you ever since you were placed in the Dursleys care, before you interrupt there is a reason you are with them. You see, there is a special warding at their house so that Lord Voldemort – the one who killed your parents – cannot harm you there." Dumbledore explained, waiting for impending questions.

Luffy nodded. "I think I get it, this mystery man killed my parents but didn't kill me and the Dursleys have mystery magic warding at their house preventing the mystery man from killing me."

"Yes, very well. It also means that when you leave its protection you become vulnerable." Dumbledore said.

"Huh, well, is there any way to get similar warding on a different house so that I don't have to live with them? And how am I going to be responding to the letter? And where am I going to get my equipment from?" Luffy asked in quick succession.

"I'm afraid you have to stay with them until suitable arrangements can be made to transfer you to another wizarding household. As for your reply and equipment, well you can accept now and I will tell the Headmistress, and you will be buying your equipment in a few days' time when Hagrid will take you to Diagon Alley." Albus smiled over his half-moon spectacles.

"So I'm just supposed to stick with those jerks while I wait for this Hagrid guy to show up?" Luffy enquired.

"If you would like I can arrange for you to stay in the Leaky Cauldron until the beginning of school. You see, the school year is similar to that of a boarding school." Albus said. "Now, if you'll grab my arm we are going to try apparition. It might make you hurl but it is the quickest way to the Leaky Cauldron."

Luffy shrugged and grabbed the old geezers' arm, he had sailed rough open Ocean, he was prepared for anythi- and there goes his non-existent breakfast.

Luffy gasped, the feeling of being pulled apart and put back together was a sickening unnerving experience, one that he knew he was going to have to withstand in the near future.

Albus looked on with slight amusement "The first time is always the hardest." He said, offering a handkerchief for Luffy to wipe the remaining vomit from his mouth.

"Yeah, so this is the leaky cauldron?" The bar was quite decrepit, with a fine layer of dust coating every available surface, cobwebs hanging from the corners and an assortment of either hungover or too drunk people.

"Yes, the owner, Tom, should be able to give you a room for a while." Albus spoke to the barkeeper who stared in wonder at Luffy, and then he began nodding in his earnest, unnerving Luffy with his unending stares.

Dumbledore walked back over. "It has been decided, once Hagrid comes to collect you, you will go to Gringotts – it's our bank – and pay Tom back. Until then, enjoy the grub and quarters. Now I really must be off Harry, please stay out of trouble and I will see you when term starts."

With those parting words Dumbledore was gone in a crack and Luffy was left with an overexcited barkeeper. "If you'll follow me Mr Potter I can take you to your room."

Tom was a hunchback with a toothy grin that was lacking a few pearlies. Luffy followed the hunched man to a room that overlooked "Diagon Alley", it was very simply furnished.

However, the bed was quite alluring and Luffy found himself falling onto a bed of feathers. It was so comfy! And better yet, it was all his! "Ahh." He murmured contentedly deciding that sleeping now would be okay and he could go exploring into Diagon Alley later.

Soon enough he was waking to the sound of "Room Service! Room Service!" Luffy groaned into his pillow, this surely meant he had slept the entire day away. _"Dammit!"_

But his stomach decided to give a hearty rumble making Luffy jump to his feet. He needed meat! He raced down the stairs to where Tom was just beginning to prepare for the new day. "Tom I want meat!" He yelled excitedly.

Several of the bar patrons shot him half-glares from where they were nursing painful reminders of what they did the previous night.

A slight clink was the only warning Luffy got before the smell of well prepared food reached his nostrils, it was nowhere up to par with Sanji's cooking but he was too hungry to care. "This is delicious." He said around a mouthful of sausage.

"I'm glad that it's up to your liking Mr Potter." Tom said, smiling widely at the boy.

In Tom's opinion the boy was nothing like he had imagined, he had thought that the boy would be a shy one, coming into the wizarding world from a muggle world was a very odd and exciting experience. He would know. But as he watched the boy scoff down his hearty breakfast he couldn't help but smile, it was always a pleasure to know that people appreciated his chefs cooking.

"So, how do I get to Diagon Alley from here?" Luffy asked while biting into a piece of toast.

"I'm afraid I can't let you explore yet Mr Potter, you have to get an escort and the only person I would entrust you to is not due here for at least another day." Tom explained carefully not touching the subject that Harry was extremely popular and well know through the wizarding community, most good but there was still a majority of former death eaters and other dark wizards that resented the boy for defeating the Dark Lord.

"Ok." Luffy replied, he knew that there was something the old man was keeping from him but he could wait for a couple of days. "Is there anything I can do here?"

Tom thought for a few minutes and then brightened. "Well, there are a lot of books on different things here and we also have a lost and found if you want to look for something. If you'll follow me Mr Potter."

Luffy followed the old man through countless corridors before stopping before a door way reading, maintenance in cursive writing. Tom pulled out a cardboard box that seemed to have some green stuff growing on it. "You can take it back to your room and 'ave a look through it, I assure you that there is nothing dangerous about it."

Luffy smiled. "Thanks old hunch man." He said, grinning wider.

"Of course sir, anything for you." Tom said, bowing respectfully, apparently electing to ignore the nickname and made his way out and back to the bar.

Luffy walked back to his room, he vaguely remembered what room number it was, unfortunately there was nothing in the room to signify that it was actually his, he hadn't brought anything from the Dursleys, he only needed one pair of clothing and nothing was of real interest that was kept under the stairs.

"Ok mystery box let's look through what you got." Luffy said dumping the contents of the cardboard box onto the bed.

Inside the box was disappointingly little. A weird looking watch that screeched every time a minute passed. A black silky scarf that whispered meaningless words, a hair brush that apparently did not require the user to hold. A few books, only one of them managed to capture Luffy's attention, it was a pirate book! _"Pirates, a history"._

"Huh, well there's nothing better to do." Luffy packed the rest of the contents away and set the box upon the wooden floor. He sat cross-legged on the head of the bed and began to read.

The book depicted the rules of Blackbeard's crew, it talked about great famous pirates during the centuries, mentioning Gold D. Roger, Shanks, even the Seven Warlords of the Sea. There was nothing about him or his crew. That is until he got to the end of the book.

There crammed into a chapter at the end of the book talked about the Straw Hat Pirates, or the Mugiwara no Kaizoku as they were known to the people who had provided information about them. Huh, it even mentioned that they were known to have kicked several asses through the years, there was a couple sentences on his devil fruit powers but were dismissed as exaggerations.

Luffy frowned at the book at the end and resolved to keep it. He was sure that the owner would not mind, he did say that it was a lost and found box.

"Welp, the only other thing I can do today is to train, I am so going to be stronger than everyone when I meet them." So that's what he did, stretching his body out so that it wound around the entire room several times, it hurt a lot and eventually after Luffy had stretched his body only 3 times around the room he had to snap back to his original size.

"Huh, well that is pretty terrible, eh." Luffy muttered to himself and began other exercises, ones that he had watched Zoro do hundreds if not thousands of the same movement.

It was a tedious process that lasted all the way up until Luffy's stomach made a rumbling noise that alerted him to the time, it was currently 7:00 and he doubted that the bar would be empty.

He walked down the hallways back to the bar. "Hello old hunch man, I want meat, anything with meat, and a lot of it."

"Of course Mr Potter." And he walked away, off to get the boy his dinner.

But murmurs had begun. "Is that Harry Potter?"

"Did he say Harry Potter?"

Luffy ignored them, he was used to some bars shutting up when they found out he was the Straw Hat Pirate captain. He could definitely deal with some people talking about his new name. "Boy, are you really Harry Potter?" One of the braver patrons had made his way up to where Luffy was sitting.

Luffy grinned. "Yep, that's me sir." He said, smiling at the expression of awe and surprise the man and everyone else in the bar took up.

Before anyone could ask any other questions Tom came back with Luffy's food: a mixture of steak, chicken, bacon and some other meats that he could not identify. "Thanks old man." And he dug in, surprising everyone with the speed in which he ate, with little manners either.

After he had finished Luffy's stomach had expanded a bit from its usual size, not that it bothered him. "Ahh. That was some tasty meat. Thanks old man."

"No problem Mr Potter." Tom replied, inclining his head gently.

"Well I'm off to sleep. See ya tomorrow." Luffy was already halfway to his room and stuck out his hand in farewell.

He drifted off to sleep, dreaming of times spent with his crew. When Luffy awoke he did not remember the exact memory, he just knew that he felt happier than he had been in a while. "Ahh." He yawned, stretching out all of his limbs.

He sleepily stumbled down to the bar. "Morning old man, I want some breakfast." Luffy said, plonking himself down onto the closest bar stool.

"Of course sir." Tom said and went to get more food.

When Tom came back a few patrons were filtering in and he turned to Luffy and said. "Hagrid is coming to collect you today, you'll be buying what you need for Hogwarts, until then just wait here."

"Sure, what does Hagrid look like?" Luffy asked as he munched his way through some toast.

"He's a half-giant, so extra big, he always carries a pink umbrella, it'll be hard to miss him." Tom walked off to serve other customers.

Luffy didn't have to wait long, as he was eating his way through his second plate of meat when Hagrid showed up. He was exactly like Tom had described; huge – probably the size of Jinbe, with black scraggly hair that rivalled Luffy's original hair.

"'arry? Is that you?" The half-giant announced, rather loudly too.

"Yep, I presume that you are Hagrild?" Luffy said, in his mind he was congratulating himself on remembering his name.

"Nah, I'm Hagrid." He replied.

"That's what I said." Luffy said, smiling broadly at the half-giant, making said half-giants' heart melt into tiny pieces.

"Alrighty 'arry, let's go get your new things. I assume you still have the list with what you need on it." At the mention of the list Luffys' expression darkened, however, it was for a fleeting second and Hagrid was half sure he imagined it.

"Nahh, it kinda, uhh, got ripped." Luffy scratched his head sheepishly, well it kinda was his fault for not hiding the letter in time.

Hagrids' face darkened minutely, he had a good guess of what had really happened, but if Harry didn't want to speak about it so be it. "Ye clumsy boy, not 'ta worry, I got another one on me in case of if ye lost it."

"Shishishi, let's go, onward to Diagon Alley!" Luffy proclaimed loudly, making the patrons smile in amusement, all except for one that is, Quirinus Quirrell, he was silently nursing a glass of water at the bar, silently watching the boy.

His beady eyes followed the Boy Who Lived and the half-breed walk out of the bar, he would talk to his master later so that they could exact a plan of revenge and resurrect the Dark Lord.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N enjoy the fic._

* * *

Outside of the bar Hagrid and Luffy approached a brick wall. "Huh, so how we getting through, magically?" Luffy asked, excitedly jumping up and down.

Hagrid chuckled at the sight. "Now I need yer ta stand back 'arry while I open the door." Harry obediently stepped back and Hagrid drew his pink umbrella and lightly tapped on the stone. "They keep on bloody changin' it." He muttered, letting out a cry of triumph when the bricks began to fold away, creating a stone arch.

"SO COOL!" Luffy yelled, jumping up and simultaneously pumping a fist in the air. He was so excited that stars seemed to appear in his eyes, sure he had seen cooler things, but this, in a world where this definitely was not the norm, this was so damn cool!

Hagrid boomed out a laugh at Luffy's reaction. "In time you'll be able to do things way cooler than that old trick, in fact, anyone with a wand can do that. Muggles can't do anything like tha'."

"Really!? And I'm going to learn stuff like that?! That's awesome! Wait, what are muggles?" He grinned wider than he had in a while, this was spectacular, he loved magic already and he had only seen that! The question was tacked on at the end as an afterthought.

"Muggle are non-magical folk." Hagrid smiled. "Come on Harry, our first stop is Gringotts, the bank." Suddenly Harrys' movement stopped.

"But I don't have any money." He muttered frowning.

"Nah? You don't, but your parents' vault is yers and I will say that ye definitely have money."

"Huh, what kind of money do you have here anyway? They're not beli, extol and they're not pounds right?" Luffy asked, so James and Lily had left him money. That was a nice thought.

"I'll explain on the way." Hagrid said, beginning to walk to where Luffy assumed this Gingotts was. "The gold coins are Galleons." He explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine bronze Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough."

"I think I get it, I'll get it more once I see 'em." Luffy said proudly.

They gained many odd looks for Luffy's outburst of happiness. Luffy smiled at all of the other stores he could see, jaw dropping at the sight of many magical items.

One whole store was dedicated to broomsticks, and judging by the moving pictures in the window (he definitely remembered those from his very small childhood), apparently the brooms flew! How fricking cool!?

And all about, wizards and witches milled about, most accompanied by smaller children. And all of them were excitedly chatting and pointing at various items animatedly. It brought Luffy memories of bustling markets and towns where he and his crew had stocked up. It was beautiful and it made Luffy smile widely.

Finally Hagrid and he stopped in front of a giant marble building. "Now Harry, I want yer to be really careful in here, it is run by goblins, yerd be mad if ye tried to rob it, even if ye don't, Goblins aren't particularly fond of any kind of wizards."

Luffy read the golden sign atop the beautiful building aloud. "Enter, stranger, but take heed of what awaits the sin of greed, for those who take, but do not earn, must pay most dearly in their turn, so if you seek beneath our floors, a treasure that was never yours, thief, you have been warned, beware of finding more than treasure there."

"Like I said, yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it." Hagrid said darkly.

Hagrid let the small child inside, eyeing the goblins that lined the hall atop counters, they were doing various jobs, scribbling on parchment, weighing coins and eyeing precious stones, Nami would _love_ this place. Of course the goblins looked down their noses at the wizard (pirate) and half-giant.

Hagrid and Luffy made their way towards the counter at the end of the hall. "Morning, we're here ter take some money out of Mr Potter's vault."

"Do you have his key sir?" The free goblin behind the counter said politely, looking down at them through his (its'?) glasses.

"Got it somewhere 'ere." Hagrid replied, and promptly emptied his pockets out onto the counter, Luffy grinned widely at the expressions of disdain worn on the goblins' faces.

Eventually Hagrid pulled out a small gold key holding up for the goblin to inspect. "Well everything seems to be in order."

Suddenly Hagrid seemed to remember something. "Oh! An' I got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore." He said with an air of importance, his chest puffed out. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."

The goblins' beady eyes scanned the letter with an air of difference and general apathy. He (it? Luffy wasn't quite sure of the goblins' gender) nodded once. "Everything is in order. I will get someone to take you both to the separate vaults. Griphook!"

At once another goblin came around and bowed to the two of them. "If you'll follow me sirs."

Hagrid and Luffy followed the goblin named Griphook out of one of the many doors. "Hagrid. What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?"

"That's none of yer business Harry." Hagrid said gruffly, in a tone that brooked no argument.

Luffy shrugged, it was yet another mystery that would eventually be solved. This mystery vault will have to wait until he could find a way to break into the bank – preferably with his nakama.

The goblin made is way to an odd looking cart. "Please get in." Luffy looked dubiously at Hagrid, no doubt wondering if the cart would fit them all.

The cart did not even creak when Hagrid got in, it must've been reinforced with magic. "Harry, can yer please not talk to meh when we're on this?"

Luffy tilted his head, frowning curiously. "And why's that Hagrid?"

"Yeh'll see." He replied cryptically.

The goblin pulled a lever and suddenly the cart was moving at high speed! "So cool!" Luffy yelled, instinctively reaching up for a hat that wasn't there.

However, while Luffy was enjoying the ride thoroughly Hagrid was looking quite green. Huh, so that was why he asked Luffy not to talk to him on the journey to the vault.

Luffy laughed at the feeling of air rushing through his hair and through the oversized clothes that were hand-me-downs of his oversized elephant of a cousin.

They sped past numerous caves and giant doors, probably leading to separate vaults, Luffy mused. They finally began to slow down and stopped in front of one of the many vaults.

The goblin named Griphook jumped out of the cart surprisingly gracefully, Hagrid followed eagerly. Luffy laughed at his eagerness. The goblin unlocked the vault revealing stacks and stacks of coins, mostly gold, he noted. Apparently his parents had been rich.

"I'll grab yeh enough money for yeh school supplies, an' then some extra." Hagrid said walking in, drawing a pouch for money out of one of his many pockets.

"Are you going to tell me what's in the mystery vault?" Luffy asked while Hagrid was busy grabbing Galleon, Sickles and Knuts, occasionally muttering about how much he had.

"Mystery v- Wait, yeh mean vault seven hundred and thirteen? I'm afraid I can't tell yeh Harry, it's top secret business, Professor Dumbledore trusts me enough for it, I can't even tell _yeh_." Hagrid said, looking up briefly at Luffy before returning to his task at hand.

Luffy pouted then looked in wonder at the items stacked up against the walls, there were many paintings and little odd trinkets. "Well, that's enough for a year."

Griphook had stood outside of the vault, waiting, it would, of course, be irresponsible to allow _anybody_ to be inside Gringotts without somebody there to ensure their compliance. "If you will allow me to take you to the second vault sir."

They got back into the cart, Hagrid biting his lip so tightly that it turned pale. They suddenly went upside down in a loop and Hagrid paled considerably. Luffy just laughed, he quite enjoyed the mystery cart.

They stopped at a vault similar to that of which held Luffy's money. The goblin got out and placed his hand on the door, creating several clicking noises, finally the door swung open. Luffy looked excitedly onwards, looking forward to the prospect of a new secret being revealed.

However, his excitement was unjustified, he frowned at the small object lying on the ground of the vault. He did not quite think that such an object could hold any importance, however, he could still feel the power that the small package emanated.

"Hagrid, what is that?" Luffy asked, frowning. He doubted that the gigantic man would answer him but he still held hope, he _had_ to know what was in the unassuming cloth.

Hagrid frowned back. "Harry, I'd tell yer if I could, I really would. But I can't, Professor Dumbledore said nobody so I ain't gonna disobey 'im."

Luffy shrugged at the response, he would just have to investigate at school. As it was, Griphook was once more taking the duo to the mystery cart, they were driving along the track at insane speeds.

After only 5 more minutes of going through Gringotts' vaults. They dismounted from the mystery cart, Hagrid muttering something that sounded suspiciously like; "Never again."

"Let's go ta get yer school supplies Harry." Hagrid said, looking marginally better now that he had left the mystery cart.

Luffy smiled at him as they were led back to the hall where the goblins that ran Gringotts resided, they each gave Luffy and Hagrid looks of disgust.

Hagrid ushered Harry out of the bank, "Now, I've got yer list of things yer'll be needing a' Hogwarts."

From out of yet another pocket Hagrid procured a slightly crumpled list. Luffy looked at the list, he knew not even the basics of what he would need to buy.

"Let's see 'ere, well firs' off we'll go ta Madam Malkins firs' and get ye fitted for robes." Hagrid said, looking at the items written in cursive on the list.

Luffy followed Hagrid to a shop with mannequins in the window, all dressed in cloaks and robes that ranged from every day use to ones that were adorned with gems and shimmering material.

"Woah, Madame Malkin's Robes For All Occasions huh?" Luffy read the sign out aloud.

"Go and get yerself fitted." Hagrid said, putting a couple of the golden coins in his hand.

"Sure, see you soon!" Luffy shouted, walking away to the shop, waving a hand over his shoulder.

Inside the shop, fabric and string littered almost every available surface. A few floating needles were quickly sewing up cloaks and robes alike while a harried woman rushed around the shop, looking at various customers and making adjustments.

"Excuse me, could you get me one of those robes?" He asked, gesturing at the various robes on the mannequins.

"So another one for school huh?" Madame Malkin muttered half to herself and half to Luffy. "There's another one of you over there." She said, ushering Luffy over to one of the curtained change rooms, a large mirror adorned the wooden wall.

Another boy was standing with his arms straight out, needles sticking out of the robe that hung off his body. Luffy stared at him, the boy had blonde hair, slicked nicely to the right side of his face, but peculiarly enough his eyebrows unnaturally curved into a curl near his hairline, he reminded Luffy of somebody he used to know.

"Stand next to Mr Malfoy please sir." The harried woman said, gesturing at the second change room.

'Mr Malfoy' looked at Luffy uninterestingly, his unusual eyebrow lifting in silent judgement. In his mouth was a toothpick, he rolled it about his teeth. "I'm Draco Malfoy, and you are?" He drawled, voice lazily articulating the words required.

"My name's Harry Potter!" He proclaimed with a proud voice, grin lifting the corners of his face up.

The toothpick dropped to the floor and 'Draco's' eyes widened minutely. He asked in a hushed, reverent voice. "Luffy?"

Luffy blinked at the boy, the smile slipping right off of his face. "Wait, Sanji? Is that you?" He asked in an equally reverent tone.

He had been waiting for 11 years, eleven years of putting up with the bull shit that the Dursleys spouted, eleven years of wondering idly whether he would ever see any of his crew's faces. Sanji's eyes seemed to reflect what he was thinking and began to well up – not that Sanji would ever admit it – and he tried to drop his arms to run at Luffy before he was stopped.

"Now boy! I don't care who your father is, you will stay still until I am done! That's the same for you too!" She all but yelled at the pair. "My god, what has the world come to?" She muttered to herself.

Luffy simply smiled again, this time it was a genuine one that was usually reserved for his crew. "It's great to see you again Sanji." He said and tears began to well up in his eyes as well, they began to stream down his face.

Sanji smiled back as well, wishing, not for the first time in the last time in his new life, that he was allowed to smoke. Apparently he was too young according to his bastard of a father. Sanji had heard of Harry Potter of course, anyone with a connection to the wizarding world knew who he was, especially his family, with all of the ties to the Dark Lord they had.

And of course his idiot of a captain had to be the Boy Who Lived. They chatted idly through the time that Madame Malkins fitted the two of them into new black robes. "Y'know, my father supports the guy that you defeated as a baby, how did you do that by the way?" Sanji asked.

"Huh? Oh you mean Lord Voldemort? Well it wasn't really me, I suspect it was my mother, she was quite adept at spells." Luffy explained, then the statement actually caught up to him. "Wait! Your father supports him!?" He screeched incredulously, he only knew that the man who had attempted to kill him that night was one of the biggest bads of this world.

"Keep it down Captain, no-one can know, think of it like I am your inside man." Sanji said, mirth sparkling in his watery eyes.

"Okay, I guess that makes sense. One other question, have you met anyone over the years?" He asked, hope teasing him wonderfully.

That hope that was periodically building up crumbled as Sanji shook his head. "I wasn't sure if I would ever find _anyone._ " He admitted.

"Eh, well now that I have my cook I can find the rest of my crew." Luffy said confidently. "Hey, are you going to that Hoggywartz place?" He asked.

"Hmm, you mean Hogwarts." Sanji smiled broadly at Luffy's reply of "That's what I said." He nodded. "Yeah, I'm actually here to get my school supplies."

"Hey we could shop together!" Luffy proclaimed loudly.

"Sure, just as long as we get to talk to the ladies." Sanji replied, finally shrugging out of his fully fitted robe. "Actually, I'm here with my mother and she won't be easy to ditch, especially once she finds out that you are Harry Potter."

"Man that sucks, well I guess we can hang until she comes back." Luffy said, imagining all of the food Sanji could make in that time.

"Don't you even think about it." Sanji warned. "I might still be able to cook but that doesn't mean I will. Actually, now that I think about it, who are your guardians?" Sanji asked, he had thought it when he had seen the boy come in, Luffy was very thin.

And he was talking about stick thin, this coming from a boy who used to eat seconds, thirds, fourths and then steal everybody's food afterwards made his weight worrying. That coupled with the fact that Luffy's expression had darkened at the question led Sanji to believe that they were a horrible family that were most likely abusing him.

"Uh, well, it's my mother's sister and her husband and son. Their son is kinda like Helmeppo when he first started out, the mother is more vulture than human and the dad is more like a miniature rhinoceros." Luffy explained bluntly.

"Huh, well they sound like an absolutely wonderful family." Sanji commented sarcastically.

Luffy hummed a noise of agreement, he opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by the sound of the door opening. In walked a snobbish looking woman in her mid-thirties, her platinum blonde hair swept to one side and black cloak silently swishing through the spring air. A.K.A Draco's mother. "Hello Draco, have you made a new friend?" She asked, her voice all polite as if talking to a politician rather than her own son.

"Yes mother, this is Harry Potter." Sanji relished in the reaction Luffy's new name elicited from his mother.

Her lips tightened to make a pursing feature, her stony eyes narrowed and she lost any manner of politeness she had adopted when she discovered Draco made a new friend.

"Well we must be off Draco." She said, completely ignoring the Boy Who Lived.

"See ya at school Sanj- I mean Draco." Luffy said, smiling and waving, his chest panged a bit but it could not be helped, and besides, he would see Sanji at school. And now he had solid proof that he was not alone in this New New World that did not contain pirates.

"Yeah see you Potter." Sanji said, almost indifferently, truth be told, he had thought that he was completely alone in this weird world where his parents were apparent supporters of a bastard. As in Sanji remembered seeing many "house guests" as a child, for the most part they were simply followers of Voldemort, but others were prisoners.

Honestly, this family hit just a _little_ too close to home, well, at least this family hadn't tried to force him into an arranged marriage with a Yonkou daughter. And thank god he didn't have any crazy siblings this time around.

One of the many house guests he had happened to be his insane Aunt. Bellatrix Lestrange, she was the epitome of terror and when she had happened to be at the Malfoy Manor, Sanji would always find himself far far away from her, lest he catch her craziness.

He had watched many die at what he learned was called the "Death curse" and only one had ever survived it, on that same night the Dark Lord vanished and subsequently his Death Eaters were captured. But his parents weren't, they had said they were under the "Imperious curse", they, of course, had lied to save their own necks in the face of danger.

He resented them both, they were nothing like the people he had eventually grown up with, including the chefs in the North Sea, Zeff and finally Luffy. They were all kind people, if not a bit eccentric and they wouldn't lie like that to save their necks. Well, maybe Usopp would have a long time ago, but that was all in the past and Sanji didn't hold it against him.

And the world of magic was just fantastical. He meant, everything that had been impossible in the New World (and that wasn't much actually) was possible in this world. He had seen cars, trains that moved incredibly fast (faster than puffing tom) and fricking brooms that allowed people to ride upon up in the sky. Unfortunately, he had yet to come across any flying ships or sky islands. Sanji also had a natural affinity for flying on the broomsticks, he had no instructors and was simply flying.

It was a very different mode of transport, one that Sanji completely adored, he had spent the majority of his childhood fighting his father on various subjects, such as the fact that Sanji was expected to behave like a snot-nosed brat. He wasn't allowed to cook! Jesus, he had to sit back and eat food he had not prepared, instead, they had slaves that did it. It was utterly despicable, almost as bad as the Tenryuubito.

But, one of the things he did enjoy about the Malfoy manor was that he was allowed to fly on a broomstick – the latest of course – and he was uninterrupted when he flew through the lavish archways through the manor, feeling the grass flow around him gently and letting splashes of water land on his body.

Ahh, freedom until he was once again dragged into the depths of that suffocating mansion, he was a pirate dammit, pirates are supposed to be free! His family usually held special galas for the wealthy and powerful, and he finally got to wear a suit of sorts. He was never allowed to flirt with the ladies, it was not proper. And he had met the prime minister of this country.

He had said his name was Cornelius Fudge and he reminded Sanji of an overstuffed bird, like a south-bird actually, but south-birds were much kinder than this portly man with a green bowler atop his head. Apparently this prime minister was terrified that the head master of Hogwarts was going to take his position, Albus Dumbledore was by far, more powerful and popular in most groups of witches and wizards.

Sanji thought it was all simply ludicrous, why did the country need more corrupt leaders, it reminded him of the various marine commanders who had exploited people for their own greedy gains. Especially that piece of shit that had caused Robin-chan so much pain and sorrow, (he had hurt Franky too but Robin-chan came first in his worries).

Even that asshole who thought he was a big shot, coming into the Baratie, wasting food like that.

Oh and don't get him started on the food that was wasted by the Malfoy family, it was enough to make Sanji sick when he saw the house elves come and sweep away their food. His parents always were served the best and the largest amounts, however they might as well have never ordered anything.

But overall, Sanji had come to terms with the fact that he had been reborn as this "Draco Malfoy" character, not that he strived to become the boy that his parents wanted him to be.

He was brought back to the present by the insistent tugging on his hand. "Did you make friends with Mr Potter?" She whispered, her tone, a mix of pure propriety and reverence.

"And if I did?" Sanji challenged, raising his eyebrow.

His mother Narcissa, replied by tugging harder. "Do you know what will happen when the Dark Lord returns? When he learns of your involvement with Mr Potter?" She hissed, dismissing her proper etiquette.

"He'll obviously try and exploit it, not that I'd comply." He said, the perfect picture of sarcasm and loyalty.

"Talking like that will get you killed Draco." Narcissa admonished, pulling them away into a near alleyway. "I don't know why you are like this but for your sake I hope you dismiss the boy and treat him like the scum he is. Now, I have gathered the rest of your supplies, we will continue this conversation later." Her voice promised some sort of confiscation of his belongings.

Oh well, if that was the price to pay for his captain, he would gladly accept it. Now, he could just hold on until the term began and he would see Luffy again, screw his family's policies to mess with anyone who did not support the Dark Lord.

As they disembarked on the journey to the Malfoy Manor, Sanji allowed his thoughts to drift to days of being aboard the Baratie, the Going Merry and finally the Thousand Sunny.

* * *

Luffy smiled and laughed, a good, throaty laugh that shook his entire body. He had never expected to find Sanji in a place like this, and with such a snobbish mother!

He even had that curly eyebrow that Zoro absolutely despised, Luffy hadn't had a chance to ask him if his Haki worked or if he had spent years training up his stamina and speed. Man, there were so many things Luffy had to ask and he had been too caught up in the euphoria of finally finding one of his friends that he had neglected to ask.

"Ah well." He said out loud, earning a piercing stare from Madame Malkin.

"I'm almost done." She said, walking about Luffy's body carefully, eyeing places that pins had been set and chalk had been drawn.

She pulled the robes off of Luffy and with a wave of her wand, a needle was set to work stitching and hemming the black material.

Luffy hummed to himself as he plonked down onto the wooden stool, eyeing the floating robes and weaving needle curiously. "So does everyone usually wear these clothes?" He asked Madame Malkin.

"Yes, it is the norm of wizards and witches to wear robes." She replied. "Now stay still while I finish your robes." She said, moving off to help another customer.

He sighed, this was no fun at all! He wanted to do exploring! Anything to ease him mind of the ever consuming boredom. Especially now that Sanji had gone with his mother, he was feeling lonely.

"And all done." Madame Malkin swooned with a delighted tone. "That'll be 1 galleon."

Handing over the golden coin Luffy collected the new bag that held his robes in it. "Thanks crazy robe lady." He smiled at her, heading out of the shop and to where Hagrid stood with two giant cones of ice-cream.

"Yay! Ice-cream!" Luffy shouted, rushing over to Hagrid and grabbing one of the cones.

Some of the melted treat rolled down the cone, creating a sticky mess on Luffy's hand. "Did ya meet 'nyone interesting?" Hagrid questioned, licking at his own ice-cream.

"Mhm." Luffy replied, he was too enraptured with the ice-cream to formulate any true responses at the moment.

They were silent as they both consumed the ice-cream. After they finished Hagrid stood up looking down at Luffy. "Well, we better getta move on Harry, don't want ta be out later than we need ta be."

Luffy nodded in agreement. The two visited the potions shop where purchases of a pewter cauldron and other weird ingredients were purchased (none of which were apparently edible). They then visited a book shop, buying all necessary books and a leather bound diary that Luffy bought as an afterthought (he would fill it out later), at the enquiring stare Luffy said. "I gotta write down all my adventures."

They then visited the animal store where Luffy decided on an eccentric looking bird that he promptly called "Southy", well, it did kind of look like one of the birds that inhabited Jaya. Its beak was much smaller however, it didn't face south, and its' feathers weren't as vibrant. But it was still a fitting name when he heard the call of the bird, it sounded very similar.

He also purchased a suit case, one that had a picture of a monkey on it, well, a moving monkey! He had asked how the pictures moved but the only response he had received was "magic", but what was he expecting?

After finally deciding one buying a vibrant yellow quill and scratchy parchment, Hagrid spoke up, "Now, we only got one place ta go Harry, we gotta go get ya wand."

"Woohoo! Let's go get me a wand!" He pumped his hand in the air excitedly.

"Now, there's only once place ya should get a wand from Harry, Ollivanders, he is the best in Diagon Alley, mebbe even the world." Hagrid's eyes reflected the pure unadulterated admiration in his eyes.

They walked to a rather derelict looking store, not that it deterred either person of the duo. "I'll just er, wait out 'ere for you Harry." Shrugging, Luffy made his way inside and immediately was stopped by an old looking man. "Yes yes, you have come for a wand have you not?" His wiry white hair curled around his face and his wrinkles showed lines of laughter.

"Yep, old wand geezer." Luffy said smiling.

"Yes, yes," Ollivander muttered under his breath. "So what to get for a lad like you, you're quite the odd one eh? Maybe…"

A box containing a wooden wand was thrust at Luffy, he pulled out the wand. "Just give it a wave." Ollivander said, but before Luffy could do as he said the wand was snatched away.

"No, not that one, perhaps?" He gave Luffy another box, when Luffy went to wave the wand however, the closest pot exploded.

"Well not that either."

"Sorry about that old man." Luffy said, looking at the pot, however, his apology was ignored and the old man continued racing about the shop, grabbing various boxes.

And it continued like this for a while before Ollivander finally stopped before one box, eyeing it carefully. "Maybe… Try this one." He said, gently giving the box to Luffy.

As soon as Luffy held it, a warmth rushed over him, making him tingle all over. The warmth promised happiness for life, it reminded him of nakamaship.

"Sycamore with a unicorn hair core, 14 inches, very flexible." Ollivander said, he was expecting great things from Mr Potter, with sycamore as the wood of the wand, he would be following his dreams to the fullest and wouldn't stop until he completed them. Well, something told Ollivander that this boy had already seen death, a very fitting wand indeed. As for the unicorn hair, it understood that this boy was pure and had true intentions.

The flexibility was just a by-product of being adept at many skills, Ollivander mused. Well, he had met many strange people today, some of them reminded him of the boy that stood in front of him.

"Thanks old wand guy!" Luffy smiled gratefully at him, after forking over another coin he walked out of the shop.

Once he was outside the shop Ollivander muttered. "I'll be expecting great things from you Monkey D. Luffy."

* * *

"Ahh." Luffy yawned, _"I think it's my nap time."_ He thought to himself.

"Well, tha's about all we need from Diagon Alley Harry." Hagrid boomed, they were currently sitting outside Florean Fortescue and just calmly talking about nonsensical things. "I'll get ya back to the pub."

"Sure thing Hagrid." Luffy said, following the half-giant back through the crowds, back to the archway that allowed the pair to get into the pub.

"Well, this is where we say good bye Harry, I'll be seeing you tomorrow to pick ya up so we can board ya on the train to Hogwarts."

"Shishishi, see you tomorrow Hagrid." Luffy yawned once more, trudging up the stairs to his temporary room, he almost buckled under the weight of his things, Hagrid had been carrying everything for the day and Luffy questioned how the hell he had been able to hold so much _stuff._

Once everything was packed Luffy flopped onto the bed, completely dressed. He allowed his exhaustion to cart him off to a world of dreams.

He was quite rudely awoken by the shouts of "Mr Potter, Mr Potter, wake up or you'll miss the train."

"Whaa?" Luffy asked unintelligibly, oh crap! School! He quickly raced about the room, shoving everything into his port, aided by his devil fruit.

He then dragged the heavy port downstairs and consumed breakfast at a lightning speed. At exactly 10 o'clock Hagrid burst into the pub, looking slightly winded.

"Let's go Harry, there ain't no time ta spare!" Hagrid said, grabbing Luffys' port and dragging it along effortlessly.

"Thanks for everything Tom! See ya everyone!" He shouted at the group behind him, he received many responses, the loudest from Tom.

"Come back any time Mr Potter!" Tom was smiling as wide as possible, showing of decaying gums and broken and missing teeth.

Suddenly he was being dragged along the way to the train station. On the way all of the muggles stared at the oddity that was making its way down their street. "Hey! Didn't anyone ever teach you it's mean to stare?!" The young boy shouted at on lookers who quickly turned their backs.

They finally arrived at the train station. It was full and bustling with muggles, Hagrid took Luffy along to near the ninth platform. "This is ye ticket, don't lose it." Hagrid said, handing Luffy a regular looking ticket. "Now, I gotta be off, I'll see yer at school Harry."

In Hagrids rush he neglected to mention where platform 9 and ¾ was. "Hey Hagrid how am I going to…?" But Hagrid had already disappeared and Luffy was left wondering where the hell the mystery platform was.

He walked over to one of the conductors after carefully inspecting the platforms 9 and 10, but there was no 9 and ¾. "Um excuse me, where is platform 9 and ¾?" Luffy asked one of the inspectors that was currently directing muggles to various trains.

"Are you pulling my leg?" The conductor asked dubiously.

Luffy frowned at him. "I assure you, I even have a ticket…" He showed the inspector his ticket, watching his expression morph into one of anger.

"What an elaborate prank, now you can go run off." The inspector shooed him.

Thankfully a group of red-heads walked past and Luffy heard the hearty woman yell at them. "9 and ¾ here we go."

"Um, excuse me, are you heading for platform 9 and ¾?" He asked the redhead.

"Of course dear, you must be muggle-born, well Fred! George! Show this young man how to get to the platform." She said, gesturing at a pair of twins.

"Only if you can tell which is which." The twins yelled in unison, linking arms. Luffy laughed at them, they were completely identical.

"Ok Fred." She said pointing at the left boy. "And George. Now go."

The twins shook their head. "And you call yourself our mother." They once again said in unison.

The woman looked quite subdued. "Sorry boys."

They both ran at the wall between platforms 9 and 10. "Nah, we're kidding, you got it right."

Their mother looked outraged and muttered murderous things under her breath. "Now watch very closely dear." She said, gesturing at the wall.

Luffy watched curiously, the twins were going to crash into the wall if they didn't go off course. But then they disappeared into the wall. "So cool!" He shouted, laughing. "It's a mystery wall!"

The small girls eyes widened fractionally, those words… they were the words that only her captain would speak. But before she could say anything to the man she had missed for 11 years of her life her mother was ushering him through the wall.

"It's okay dear, it's Ron's first time as well. Now off you go, get a good pace up." Molly said to the pair.

And they were gone and so was Nami's wish. She missed her captain dearly, she even missed Usopp and that shitty cook who was constantly fawning over her.

Well, she had waited ten years, another one wouldn't kill her. Well, there were still stupid muggles to rob of their gold, she had accumulated quite a wealth, garnering admiration from Fred and George and despise from Percy and Ron. Bill sure as hell condoned it being the adventurous soul he was.

* * *

Luffy rushed at the wall with a boy named Ron, he wasn't the least bit afraid of actually hitting the wall, especially now that he knew that the platform was behind it, it was a mystery platform!

He laughed as they soared through the wall, coming to a stop in front of an enormous red train. "All aboard the Hogwarts express!" The conductor yelled.

Luffy and Ron made boarded the train, Luffy looking everywhere for a certain blonde haired cook. "You lookin' for someone?" Ron asked Luffy as he watched the boy crane his neck.

"Yep, he's the only friend I know, well apart from you that is." He replied making Ron grin and feel warm inside, the fact that this boy already considered him a friend was spectacular.

"Well, if I'm your friend, what's your name?" Ron asked the black haired boy.

"Me, well I'm Harry Potter." He grinned at Ron's gobsmacked expression.

"Wait, you- you're Harry Potter?" Ron asked the newly name Harry Potter.

"Yup, now let's go get a seat, I'll find him on the train."

They both looked at all of the carriages on the train, only the last one was empty and they lifted their heavy trunks onto the offered rack. They both slumped down onto their respective seats, only for Luffy to jump up a second later. "Well, I'm gonna go find my friend."

"Wait, do you have it?" At Harrys' confused expression Ron elaborated. "The scar?"

"Yup." Luffy said proudly, pushing his hair back to reveal the lightning shaped scar that adorned his forehead.

"Wicked." Ron grinned at Harry.

Luffy left the carriage, still smiling at Ron's antics. He looked carefully through the carriages he passed, but to no avail.

He finally caught sight of the blonde haired boy brooding by himself in an empty compartment, how Ron and he had missed him would remain a mystery.

"Sanji!" He shouted and launched himself at the cook.

Sanji was not prepared to have his arms filled by his captain and grunted at the impact. "Uh, hi to you too Luffy."

There was no need for any words between the two, their touches were comfort enough. They stayed like that for at least five minutes, with Luffy clinging to Sanji like his life depended on it.

Years that had been spent apart seemed to meld together into the space of a second, they both had each other now, and they finally had somebody who they had known for a large portion of their life back in their old life.

Sanji reflected on times when he had wanted to give up, to give in to the temptation of simply obliviating himself (he read about it) so that he wouldn't have to bear the pain of his previous life. But whenever he thought like that he remembered that he wanted to see the All Blue once more, despite the fact that the map of the world had changed Sanji still had hope, and besides, he knew he would find one of his cremates eventually.

Luffy felt _way_ too skinny and it was starting to really piss Sanji off. Just what had his relatives been feeding him? Back in the day Luffy could probably put Wappol to shame by eating his way through entire houses. But now, he noticed that his captain had only once asked for his cooking. It was worrying to say the least.

But they could definitely rectify that and (he really was going to say this) they would increase Luffy's appetite.

They finally pulled apart, Luffy landed himself on the seat beside Sanji. "Anyways, I kinda ditched another friend I found at the platform. Do you wanna come sit with him and me?"

"Um, sure I guess, but just so you know, my family is not very well liked." Sanji commented, remembering his stupid Malfoy name.

"That doesn't matter to me, he's pretty chill." Luffy said, he doubted that his new friend would care about a name.

"Sure then." Sanji said, lifting his trunk up and picking up his animal of choice, an elegant looking emerald bird that liked to nap a lot but was crazy strong.

(No he wasn't like Zoro at all, that's why he did not call his bird Zoro. He didn't! Stupid grass haired swordsman.)

The duo walked the length of the train before pushing open the door to their carriage. "Hey Ron this is the friend I was telling you about, San- Draco."

"Sandraco?" Ron asked, looking at the newcomer curiously. He was blonde with part of his fringe covering his eye, and his eyebrow was most peculiarly shaped, curling down to meet his hairline. And there was a toothpick sitting in the corner of his mouth.

"No, I'm Draco, Harry there is just an idiot." Sanji said well naturally.

It was a few seconds before the implications of his name sunk into the red-haired boy before perking up with a new-found hatred. "Wait, not Draco as in Draco Malfoy right?"

"Um that'd be me. Now can I put my trunk down?" Sanji asked, waiting for the hatred that was definitely going to come.

"No way. How are you two friends? The boy who defeated He-who-must-not-be-named and the son of the man who definitely supported him?" Ron looked very confused and a little betrayed. "Go on then, make your remarks about my family."

Sanji looked at the boy with contempt. "I haven't got anything against your family until I meet them. Sure my parents might support Voldemort but that doesn't mean I do. Jesus, check the facts before you make assumptions Ron."

Ron had flinched at the mention of _his_ name. But that boy… he hadn't made one pure-blooded remark against his family, and he said that he didn't support his family's' decisions. Curious, that's what it was (or mental, he couldn't really decide). But he had to trust Draco Malfoy because the look of absolute joy on _the_ Harry Potters' face was definitely worth it

Luffy looked at Sanji with a new sense of pride and respect. "We'll be arriving at Hogwarts shortly." A voice floated to them.

"We should get changed into our school robes." Ron advised. "Um but how are we going to do that?"

"Why don't we turn our backs to each other?" Sanji suggested.

So that's what they did. "Hey did anyone come by when I was gone?" Luffy asked Ron as he got changed.

"Oh yeah, a crazy lady and a boy who seemed really clumsy and a bit of a liar came by looking for the boys lost toad." Ron replied.

"Huh." They finished dressing and turned to face each other.

The only thing to talk about were idle things, like the weather before the train came to a lurching stop. They dismounted when the conductor informed the trains' occupants that their luggage would be taken to the school.

"Firs' years over 'ere." A familiar voice boomed out, terrifying aforementioned first years.

But Luffy laughed at the voice. "Hagriddem!" He shouted happily, going to greet his guide to Diagon Alley and Kings Cross.

"Hello Harry, good ta see ya, oh, yer got some new friends? Well I'll talk later, just pile into a boat." Hagrid walked away to usher the remaining first years onto the boats.

A girl walked up asking to join. "Hello there, may I join your group, all the other boats seem to be full." She had bushy hair and was still clutching a book despite being told that the luggage would be sent up to their rooms.

"Of course, sit here, mademoiselle." Sanji said with his usual chivalry, moving aside to allow the girl to gain a seat, said girl blushed at his antics but said nothing.

And they were off! How were they moving? Nobody knows. "It's a mystery boat!" Luffy shouted happily.

Most of the students were talking but not their boat, Sanji and Luffy were simply enjoying the feeling of being over open water – not open but it was close enough – and on a boat, regardless of size.

The group of boats moved through a stone archway that ivy crept up, underneath it was all very eerie with a slight mist rising off the water and the only light was transmitted by the stars and moon.

And then they were out of the tunnel and all gawked at the sight of the enormous, medieval castle. "It's huge!" Luffy exclaimed excitedly.

The turrets were so high that they almost touched the only clouds that floated languidly in the sky. Overall the sight was spectacular and all of the first years stared at the castle with an excited anticipation.

"Are you ready captain?" Sanji whispered to Luffy who grinned back in response.


	3. Chapter 3

_Updated A/N yo, if anyone has any suggestions as to whom Jinbe or Franky could be do not hesitate to PM me, I honestly have no clue rn, there is the possibility to make them OC's I guess but that is my last option._

 _Whoops, forgot to mention that that is one of the things I am changing - Jinbe is a Straw Hat, (sorry all of the secondary readers)._

* * *

They finally reached the shore and their ship was the first to lose all occupants from the boat, most first years were simply too awestruck at the sight of the castle to move from their places within their tiny ships.

Eventually Hagrid yelled at the few stragglers that remained behind, stepping onto the boat and almost capsizing their boat, causing all of the little children to scream in fear. Thankfully they were saved at the last second by Hagrids new found balance.

Luffy simply laughed at the others misfortune. Sanji smirked at his captain's antics, Hermione was frowning disapprovingly at Luffy and Ron smiled. Ron had seemed to get over his initial prejudice against Draco, but he still held a general air of distrust around him.

"Alright, if yer'll follow me firs' years." Hagrid boomed, gesturing for the gobsmacked first years to follow him.

Hagrid led them up to the castle, the walk was only interrupted by one occasion when one of the first years had fallen over in their haste to make it closer to the castle.

They walked up from grassy fields that were bordered by a dark, ominous forest and the castle, there was a lone hut near the edge of the gloomy forest, but the warm glow emanating from inside promised happiness, quite incongruous to the darkness of the forest it was close to. Finally they made it to the castle, many of the unfit new comers panting at the exertion.

Hagrid rapped once on the oak doors. Immediately they were opened by a strict looking woman who had greying hair swept up tightly in a bun and emerald robes adorned her lithe frame. "The firs' year Professor McGonagall." He said, well, it was Hagrids' version of talking, but it was far too loud to be considered as simple 'talking'.

Professor McGonagall said. "Thank you Hagrid, I will take them from here." She led them into the castle and several of the first years almost fell over in their shock upon discovering that the castle was bigger on closer inspection. They walked into a hallway that was made of stone, a few moving paintings adorned the walls, paintings that usually gave a simple gesture to the newcomers, welcoming them to their humble (not so humble) abode.

Professor McGonagall finally halted in front of a large doorway, from which the voices of hundreds of students were gathered, no doubt talking about their summers and oh my god did you hear that Kylie broke up with Timothy? And damn the Chudley Cannons didn't make it _again_ last season.

The point stands that they were talking nonsensically, filling the time between the new first years being introduced and the inevitability of a feast to fill the currently empty tables.

The first years milled about the great door, most were still quite awestruck, especially the muggle-borns who had never seen anything like this. And of course a certain bushy haired girl was a constant source of knowledge about Hogwarts having read Hogwarts, A History.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, I am Professor McGonagall." She said. "The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common-room."

The professor briefly took in a breath of air, allowing Luffy's stomach to give out an incredibly loud growl, making Sanji kick him sharply in the back of the shin. Luffy also received various looks of disapproval.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin." Sanji noticed the underlying disgust in the teacher's voice at the mention of the house that most of Sanji's family went to (he did not want to). "Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn you house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The sorting begins in a couple of minutes, I suggest you smarten yourselves up."

And McGonagall left, presumably to prepare the ceremony that would decide their fate – I mean house.

* * *

"So. Is it true? Did Harry Potter really come to Hogwarts?" A sandy haired boy asked with scrutinizing eyes, searching the crowd for his prey.

All at once an outbreak of murmurs occurred, of course this was only amongst those who had witches and/or wizards as parents. None of the muggle borns had any clue as to what was going on.

Said celebrity was currently yawning and fantasising over what meat this school might serve, that and where the rest of his crew was. They had all obviously carnated (whatever the hell it was) into a different person, he had yet to find Zoro or Nami which was starting to really make him nervous. But the first priority was to get meat into his stomach.

Sanji elbowed his absent minded captain, at his sharp look Sanji simply whispered. "Listen."

So that's what he did, "Did you hear? Harry Potter's here."

"I hope that he's cute."

"Maybe he'll be a total pompous jerk."

"I heard that after he defeated you know who he decided he'd hunt down all of his followers."

"But as a small child to witness something like that…"

It was all very disconcerting to say the least. So Luffy stuck up his hand. "Uh, I'm right here." He said to the crowd awkwardly.

Sanji hit his head, _hard._ 3… 2… 1… and:

"Wait that's him!'

"He's a lot scrawnier than I thought he would be…"

"Wow he just is taking this attention so well."

"Must be well prepared."

"Hey! Everyone, don't be rude." Sanji finally shouted, looking out at the crowd, to his pleasure (dissatisfaction) they all seemed to know who he was and immediately shut up.

And only a few seconds later the chatter resumed, this time concerning what the Sorting ceremony would include. "Fred and George told me that there's a troll you gotta defeat." Ron said, a certain level of fear entering his voice.

"Huh, sounds like fun!" Luffy exclaimed, way too excited at the prospect of fighting a troll.

Sanji harrumphed, "I doubt that they would make us fight a troll, but that'd be pretty cool, I wonder how I could cook it?" He muttered the last part to himself but the majority of the people close to him moved away in disgust and mild horror.

And when things could not get bad enough a horde of ghosts floated through one of the walls causing a large portion of the first years to scream in horror.

A man wearing a ruffle and odd robes looked at them confusedly. "What? Have you never seen a ghost?" He asked.

Another one of the ghosts had quite a gruesome appearance with a blood soaked gown adorning his corporeal form. He silently glared at the newcomers.

"Well, hello young ones, I am nearly-headless-Nick." Nick said, giving a bow, but, as he leaned down in greeting his head fell off, well, not fully, it was held there by a few tendons.

"That is so cool!" Luffy shouted, his eyes gleamed in delight at the disgusting sight.

"I'm glad someone thinks so, what is- Hold up! Here's the cavalry!" He shouted in delight, and true to his word an entire platoon of horses burst through the walls, some passing straight through students making them shiver, but most of them were far above the student's heads.

"Shishishi!" Luffy laughed at the poor student's misfortune, most of which immediately turned and glared at him, Harry Potter or not.

But it seemed karma was working against Luffy and a ghost floated its way through him, "Gahh! So cold!" He yelped at the feeling, he felt like somebody just poured a bucket of ice over his head, thankfully the feeling only lasted as long as the ghost was… Hmm, were they inside or just forming around him? Too many thoughts…

Right then the doors reopened and McGonagall began to usher the year in. "You'll be called out in alphabetical order." She said.

They were led through the giant doors to an enormous room that seemed to reflect the weather on the ceiling. "I read that the ceiling is enchanted to look like that." Hermione whispered furiously to anyone who would listen.

To the immediate sides of the nervous first years were four tables that were large enough to accommodate an entire pirate crew! And all of the houses were reasonably full. One was red and gold, another midnight blue and silver, yellow and one that was green and silver. The majority of the people at the Slytherin table seemed to be highly pretentious, Sanji noted. Well, it was to be expected, every single one of them came from rich pure blood families.

At the front (back?) of the room was a raised platform on which were obviously the teachers, they were differentiated by their various pointy hats and non-uniform robes. In the very middle was a chair larger than the rest which held the man that Luffy had met when he ran from the Dursleys.

The man seated was wearing periwinkle robes, his wispy white hair and beard reached far down past his waist and atop his head sat a pointed hat that matched the colour of his robes. A pair of crescent shaped glasses sat on his slightly hooked nose.

And in front of the headmaster's chair was a new looking stool and upon that a battered hat, it certainly looked incongruous to the teacher's pristine looking hats.

Much to Luffy's disappointment there was no troll residing in the room waiting for them to challenge it.

Then, from a rip, the hat began to sing, its' melody was quite off the scale and it obviously had no skill in the actual tone, the words however, captured many of the first year's attention. But everyone else was looking at the Hat expectantly, like they knew this was going to happen.

The words enraptured the entire room, it sung of the beginning of Hogwarts, explaining the story that occurred between the founders. It spoke of the friendship between them but the animosity towards muggle born witches and wizards. It sung of Salazar's betrayal.

Finally, after much deliberation, Luffy muttered. "It's a mystery hat." He happened to speak exactly when the hat stopped, drawing attention to himself.

Sanji frowned at his captain fondly. "Idiot."

When the pair actually payed attention the hat had finished its' little song and was now motionless, sitting limply like it had never moved a non-existent muscle. The entire hall burst into applause.

"So we just gotta put on a hat?" Ron whispered. "I'm gonna kill Fred and George."

Professor McGonagall looked at the first years from the top of her glasses. "When I call your name you will put on the hat and be sorted." Then she began reading off a very long scroll made of parchment. "Abbot, Hannah!"

A pink faced, blonde pigtailed girl walked calmly despite her shaking hands and put the hat on as per instruction, it slipped right past her eyes. After a couple of seconds, the hat screamed. "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The table on the right cheered loudly as a new Hufflepuff joined them. A ghost who was an older woman waved merrily at the new girl.

"Bones, Susan."

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat screamed once more and the girl joined Hannah at her new home.

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!" The table closest to the first years clapped this time, they all had a refined sense about them and a few got up to actually shake Terry's hand.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy." Went to Ravenclaw, receiving the same reception Terry had got.

But immediately after Lavender Brown became the first Gryffindor, Luffy saw the two twins who were Ron's brothers immediately burst into a round of catcalling. He liked the look of that table, between their red and gold colours they seemed to be a rather rowdy bunch of fellas and they also had a daring air lingering amongst them.

That house promised adventure and Luffy was all for adventure, after all, what kind of a pirate would he be if he didn't even go on half decent escapades?

In his thinking Luffy missed Millicent become the first Slytherin, he didn't really think that they looked particularly kind, but he could understand ambition and cunning, after all his navigator had been particularly cunning.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin."

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Well, Hufflepuff looked very inviting as well. They all greeted the new boy warmly and a few even gave out a hug to the terrified looking boy. Huh, so loyalty, he knew his crew was loyal as he was to them. Hufflepuff was probably the most likely against Gryffindor then.

"Finnigan, Seamus." The sandy haired boy that had been standing relatively close to Luffy stood up and slunk up to the hat.

Luffy noticed that he was quite buff for someone of his age, muscles seemed to bulge from beneath the almost shapeless robes. That coupled with the fact that the boy looked calmly as if he were an eagle and the rest of the school his prey. He reminded Luffy of someone he used to know.

It took more than a minute for the hat to decide where to put Seamus. "SLYTHERIN!"

Seamus pulled the hat off with the same amount of calm and sauntered to the table where he smiled at the older students, he turned an eye indifferently back to the hat.

"Granger, Hermione."

The hat sat on her head for a solid minute, deliberating where to put her.

"GRYFFINDOR"

And the bushy haired girl grinned widely, showing her buck teeth. She made her way over to the cheering table. Ron groaned in response to her sorting.

"Longbottom, Neville." A nervous looking boy walked up, well, he was pretending to be full of confidence but his knees were definitely shaking.

He dropped the hat on his head. It barely took 3 seconds before the hat shouted. "HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Of course the great Neville would make it into a brilliant house!" The boy exclaimed, jabbing a thumb in his own chest, he forgot the hat in his haste to make it to the yellow table that were smiling endearingly at his antics.

McGonagall took the hat, giving 'Neville' a disapproving face, one that he immediately backed away from, apologising profusely.

Sanji and Luffy breathed in quickly, Sanji's toothpick fell from his mouth. That sounded like something Usopp would say. Their eyes widened in shock and realisation in sync, "Is that..?"

They looked at each other, they had just found their third crew member.

In their shock they didn't notice Morag MacDougal being sorted.

"Malfoy, Draco!"

Sanji pulled himself out of his stupor to walk up to the stool, he sat down, pulling a toothpick out from god knows where and sticking it in his mouth.

 _Hmm, what to do with you? You're the third Mugiwara I have had to deal with_. A voice resounded in his head.

 _Who am I you ask? Why I am the sorting hat. And you Mr Malfoy, or should I say Mr Vinsmoke are quite the interesting character._

He really was.

 _But what house to put you in? Hmm, obviously not Slytherin, you're not ambitious enough. Ravenclaw is out, no thirst for knowledge. Hufflepuff? No, well, there's really only one place for you then._

Wait, did you say I'm the third like… me?

 _Yes yes, now…_

Hey wait! Who else is here? I know that Usopp was that Neville guy but who else?

 _That sandy kid, he's a Mugiwara no Kaizoku._

Wait. WAIT!

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Sanji gritted his teeth, he had been so damn close to figuring out who else there was, oh well, the only sandy haired boy he could think of was Seamus so he'd invite him from Slytherin in a couple of minutes, screw all of that stupid house rivalry

But as he moved he realised that the entire hall was looking at him in surprise, half in distrust. He rolled his eyes and sat down at the Gryffindor table, the only ones that were not openly admitting their distrust were a couple of obvious muggle borns.

As others were nervously getting sorted Sanji walked up to the Slytherin table, ignoring the looks of shock he had received and grabbed the sandy haired boy and dragged him back over to the red and gold table.

Funnily enough the Seamus didn't even blink at his man-handling, instead, when they sat down together ignoring the hateful, dirty looks shot their way Seamus said flawlessly. "Nice curly eyebrow you got there shitty cook."

"Why you…" And they began to brawl, in the middle of the table. "Stupid moss-head!" He shouted at Zoro.

Finally they were pulled apart by one of the Weasleys who introduced himself as Percy the prefect of Gryffindor. "Now, I don't care what rivalry you two have, I will see no more of it."

Thankfully the prefect did not attempt to send the Slytherin back to his own table.

Successfully (who am I kidding, of course they're going to fight again) mollified by Percy's words Zoro and Sanji sat next to each other in silent camaraderie, all of those years spent apart meant nothing now. And then. "Potter, Harry!'

More whispers broke out, all concerning the new celebrity. "Oh look, it's our fearless leader." Sanji whispered to Zoro.

"Wait, Luffy is freaking Harry Potter? Of course he is. Don't know what I expected." Zoro replied, lazily opening one eye.

Luffy strode up to the hat and pulled it tightly over his head.

 _Hmm, so you're_ the _Monkey D. Luffy huh? Well you have all of the qualities of a Slytherin, but you also have the bravery and loyalty of a Hufflepuff. Hmm, well, even without your friends to support you, you still rush into situations you know you will not make it out of in one piece._

 _Well, that cancels Hufflepuff, hmm, Slytherin or Gryffindor?_

 _While you definitely have the ambition to be a Slytherin, I am more inclined to put you in…_

"GRYFFINDOR!" The table exploded into cheers, by far louder than any that everyone else had received.

The Weasley twins were shouting "We got Potter!" simultaneously and everyone was giving him a hearty amount of applause.

"Hey Sanji- oops Draco." Luffy said casually, plonking down in the space intentionally left between Zoro and Sanji.

"Hey captain." Zoro lightly murmured to his best friend and captain.

"ZORO?!" Luffy yelled, launching himself at the swordsman, his words sparked interest of those around him, the boy who lived knew not just Draco Malfoy, the boy who came from an entire family of dark wizards but he also knew another Slytherin who he knew well enough to give a nickname.

Not that they knew that that was his real name. "Yeah, it's me." Zoro whispered to Luffy, arms wrapping around his thin frame.

Well now, of course Luffy was Harry Potter, I mean, who else would defeat the evillest wizard when they were just a little child?

The hat had said that things were going to be changing at Hogwarts and Zoro had anticipated that something like this would happen. He also knew that Luffy would either be in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff or Slytherin. However, Slytherin was apparently the better choice for Zoro himself.

Honestly, Zoro had thought he was going to Hufflepuff, he was incredibly loyal to only his captain. Given half the chance (there had already been plenty) he would gladly trade his own life for the life of his captain.

But apparently his ambition outweighed his loyalty, in the sense that without his ambition he would never have become so loyal to Luffy. So the hat put him in Slytherin, oh well, at least they wore green.

He had suspected that Luffy was going to be here, – Hogwarts that is – but as Harry Potter of all people? It did make sense but come on! Zoro had (almost) been prepared for Sanji to drag him over to the table where he was seated.

Now the shitty cook was also with the captain, and no, Zoro was not jealous _at all_ that Sanji had been the first one to meet Luffy in the body of Harry Potter.

(He really was).

But either way, he now knew of three other Straw Hats. Welp, he was going to need to keep a close eye on Luffy, Zoro didn't like how thin he was and besides, Luffy had a penchant for getting into trouble easily.

Trouble simply found him at every bend and corner. But, they were reunited and that was all that mattered.

Luffy finally extricated himself from Zoro's arms grinning widely, the duo had missed a few people who had been sorted, too busy inhaling each other's new scents as to never forget each other. Sanji simply looked happy that first mate and captain had finally found each other, as much as he was loathe to admit it, Luffy without Zoro was never good.

"Weasley, Ronald!"

Luffy perked up at the mention of his new friend, and even Sanji looked vaguely interested. The hat sat atop Ron's head for barely ten seconds before.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Ron looked extremely relieved as he made his way over to the red and gold table. Everyone cheered for him, all of the noticeable redheads a little louder than the rest. Luffy among those who were cheering loudly.

Zoro and Sanji joined in, however they were not as enthusiastic as their captain. Ron walked over to the trio and sat down with them, Luffy gave him his signature smile. Zoro and Sanji gave him appreciative smiles.

And then food appeared and the moment was over. "FOOD!" Luffy shouted, grabbing anything that was near him, including some that were too far and he had to get Sanji and Zoro to get for him.

All in all the sight of their captain was as hilarious as it always was, he absolutely overstuffed himself, stomach distending, much to the disgust of everybody near the boy. Everyone save for Sanji and Zoro.

"So, Draco huh? Should I just call you swirly eyebrow?" Zoro mocked, sipping on a drink that was (much to his disappointment) not sake.

Said swirly eyebrow twitched before Sanji leapt to his feet and whacked Zoro over the head with his foot. "Then I guess I can call you moss-head!" He said and before they knew it, they pair were duelling, only with hand – to – hand, or in Sanjis' case – feet.

Luffy just sat, content to watch them duke it out. It was then that a nervous looking boy walked up to the trio. "Huh, of course you got the good body." He said, he, being Neville Longbottom, and he was eyeing Sanji and Zoro in envy.

"Usopp?" Luffy asked, eyeing the scrawny frame.

"Yup." Usopp popped the 'p' a ridiculous amount. He stood proudly for a ridiculous long time, posed to highlight his importance, he wasn't tensed up and therefore not ready for the armful of captain that he received.

They both went stumbling and it was only a light tugging on Luffys' robe on Zoro's part that ensure the pair did not land on the stone floor.

Welp, the pair had caused quite a scene, a Hufflepuff and a Gryffindor hugging like they hadn't seen each other in years, well, maybe Harry Potter had a secret relative that was actually a wizard or witch and he was just seeing him for the first time in years.

It wasn't uncommon for siblings to be in different houses, just not too common.

The pair finally pulled apart and Luffy ensured that Zoro and Sanji made a place for Usopp on the bench.

And Luffy went right back to gorging himself on the food that was in front of him. If it was possible to inhale food Luffy would have achieved this feat, it certainly looked like he was inhaling the food.

But alas, the food disappeared, only to be replaced with sweets of all kinds.

"Awesome!" Luffy exclaimed, sure he was a meat kind of guy, but desert was nothing to be laughed at.

He piled his plate until it began to topple over and stuck it in his mouth, all at once. Most of the entire hall was looking at him incredulously, how could he even fit that much in his mouth at once?!

Even the teachers were looking at him, mostly in disdain but others looked murderous. One of the staff, a man in a purple turban was looking at Harry like he was a bug that needed to be crushed.

Finally, _finally,_ the food disappeared, leaving Luffy with a distended stomach that was pressing against his robes.

Dumbledore stood, spreading his arms wide, as if he was going to embrace another. "Hello to you all! I would like to welcome all of you to school."

And Luffy tuned out, except for when Professor Quirrell was introduced, he got a bad feeling from that professor and his ominous turban. It probably didn't help that his scar was hurting like a bitch.

Well, not enough for him to writhe on the ground in pain, but certainly enough to make him wince.

There was another sentence that caught Luffy's attention. Apparently they weren't allowed to go on a specific hallway, Luffy had laughed outright when the old geezer said that going in there could result in injury or death. Mostly thinking that the old geezer was joking, but at Dumbledore's sombre look, Sanji kicked Luffy, _hard._

And the Potions master was looking at Luffy with an air of aloofness and utter disgust. He wondered what that was all about.

Zoro and Usopp began moving away, only to be stopped by an arm that was a tiny bit stretched, not enough to cause any heart attacks.

"Promise we'll stay friends?" He asked softy to the pair, voice more vulnerable than it had been in a long time.

Zoro and Usopp looked at each other and nodded to their best friend and captain. "Of course we will." Usopp replied and continued onwards to his group that were beginning to disperse.

Zoro simply nodded and smiled softly, making his captain drop his arm to allow him to walk to the Slytherin table.

"All right, first years follow me!" Percy Weasley shouted at the newbies.

Sanji and Luffy patiently followed the prefect up through winding stair cases and one memorable occasion saw the staircase actually _move_ underneath their feet.

The majority of the year shouted in surprise, and oh boy, Sanji knew that this was going to be a pain in the ass with Luffy.

Knowing him, Luffy would most likely spend hours just _waiting_ for the stairs to move so he had a free ride over the freefall beneath them.

Finally Percy stopped in front of a life sized portrait that happened to be moving. Something that Luffy had noticed all of the paintings did, it was a little disconcerting.

But before he could move on, bundles of sticks began flying at the first years, a menacing cackle was the only clue as to whom was throwing aforementioned sticks.

"Peeves! Reveal yourself!" Percy shouted.

The evil cackle intensified and a short translucent man wearing a garish orange bow tie appeared, sticks damningly held in his hand.

"Ickle Firsties." The man now known as Peeves laughed at the smaller children.

"Peeves! Leave now or I'll tell the Bloody Baron." Percy said.

Peeves simply laughed before turning tail and floating away. Percy resumed attention to the lady sitting in the portrait, she had mousy brown hair and pink, frilly material adorned her creamy white skin.

"You might want to watch out for that one. His name is Peeves, the only one who can control him is the Bloody Baron. He won't even listen to us prefects."

Then the portrait spoke, looking at them in disinterest. "Password?" She asked.

"Caput Draconis." Percy said in reply and the portrait swung forward revealing a hole just large enough to fit the older students. The students all scrambled inside, to stumble into a lavishly furnished room.

Well, Sanji's first thought was that somebody really liked the colour red. From the squashy armchairs that surrounded a roaring fire, to the red velvety carpet that was thrown on the stone floor.

Luffy certainly liked the colours, everything was a variation of red! It was his favourite colour and a tribute, regardless he really liked the entire colour scheme.

Percy directed the girls into one of the dormitories and the boys into another. From the looks of the view it seemed to be that they were currently located in one of the towers.

Up the stairs was the boy's dormitories, and, in a pile, all of their belongings were stacked neatly near the door. Luffy immediately claimed one of the beds that had a window.

Sanji picked one that was next to Luffy's, on the right to be exact. Sanji didn't really pay attention to the other boys in the room, too busy going through the motions of getting changed so that he could sleep.

He had heard that the kitchens were hidden behind a bowl of fruit near the Hufflepuff house room. He planned to get up early in the morning to do some cooking, it had been a while since he had used a kitchen to cook food for people other than himself.

Luffy speedily changed into his pyjamas, he looked around the dormitory interestingly. Many of the other students had ignored unpacking their trunks in favour of dropping down onto their beds, most of them left their curtains open.

Luffy sat on his bed and thought. He mostly was just thinking about the fact that three of his friends had already been found.

Finding them now seemed liked dumb luck, eleven years of his life wasted, wasted by serving the stupid Dursleys. And here three of his members had apparently grown up in a world of magic, it did make him a little bit jealous.

But, all in all, he was just riding out the high of unadulterated happiness that being with his nakama always brought him.

And with those final thoughts Luffy sunk back into his bed, letting the hands of sleep claim him.


	4. Chapter 4

_Interesting fact: I'm fairly certain I read this in the manga but Usopp's name is derived from uso (Japanese for lie) and Aesopp (the name of the boy who cried wolf)._

 _Enjoy_

* * *

The following morning dawned early and with it saw Sanji getting up extra early and getting changed so that he could find the kitchens and cook in suitable clothing.

He also woke Luffy up by lightly shaking him. "Luffy, I need you to sniff out the kitchen."

"Whaa?" His captain asked unintelligibly. But after a second he was up, wiping sleep from his eyes and yawning widely.

"I need you to take me to the kitchens, food. I need to cook." He said, dragging his captain out of his four poster bed.

"FOOD!" Luffy exclaimed and some of the boys stirred.

Sanji slapped a hand over his captains' mouth. "Shhh, we don't want them waking up."

Finally Luffy got changed, or his equivalent of getting changed with only a few buttons done up, tie not done properly, baggy shorts (they had come from Dudley) and sandals, at least he put the robe on over the top. When Sanji had asked why he wouldn't just get changed normally Luffy replied. "It's too uncomfortable."

Sanji just smiled. "Okay, now, lead me to the kitchens."

Luffy chuckled and walked out of the common room, lifting his nose to the air comically. He began sniffing and soon it was like following a dog who had picked up on the scent of a cat.

They finally stopped in front of a portrait that was described exactly as his mother had let slip. "Okay, now…" Sanji stepped close to the frame, making sure that nobody was around.

"Sanjiiiii. Can you hurry up? I'm hungry." Luffy whined, and true to his word his stomach growled pathetically. "Seeee?" He said, gesturing to his complaining stomach.

Sanji just face-palmed. He tickled the pear that was sitting in the bowl and watched his captain's face light up as the painting swung open to reveal the kitchen.

"Woah!" Was all he could manage.

Inside the state of the art kitchen were hundreds of small creatures. "What are they?" Luffy asked.

The they in question were tiny creatures, wrinkly skin covered their body and their eyes were globelike. Flabs of skin hung off their heads, acting as ears. They were bustling about the kitchen, cooking enough to feed the entire house. Once the duo had entered the room most of the elves stopped what they were doing to look at them with their all-encompassing eyes, it was an odd experience.

"House elves, they're slaves of sorts. My family has a lot of them." Sanji replied, a little bit caught up in the fact that he was _in a kitchen_ and that he was able to use whatever he wanted.

"Mr's, what would you like?" A wrinkly 'house elf' walked up to them and bowed deeply, his (Luffy once again was not entirely sure of its gender, the rags didn't really leave much to the imagination but even so Luffy didn't see anything) nose touched the ground.

"Food!" Luffy exclaimed, plonking himself down on the closest table.

"Do you mind if I do some cooking?" Sanji asked, hoping that none of the house elves recognised him.

The house elf looked mildly upset for a minute, obviously thinking that Sanji thought that the house elves cooking was not up to par before it smiled. "Of course sir."

"I can show you a few recipes if you would like." Sanji said, the complete air of politeness.

The house elf looked very taken aback, nobody had tried to teach them new recipes. Luffy watched the exchange in mild concern, he understood how the house elf was feeling, he had been subjected to essentially becoming a slave.

But Sanji said that his family had many of these creatures, did that mean that Sanji's family were bad people? It sounded like it, Luffy heard what people said about the Malfoy family, they said that they were evil evil people.

But Luffy knew that Sanji was a good person, regardless of what family he came from.

That said, Luffy loved watching Sanji cook, he looked at home, more at home than he had been when lying in those four poster beds.

And he went about the kitchen, using everything as he always had, he was going to cook his captain the best recipes he had learnt in hell. It only took 10 minutes for him to cook something up for Luffy.

He plunked a steaming pile of food that was a mixture of all meats. "MEAT!" He shouted before downing the entire plate of food. "That was delicious Sanji! Now more!"

Sanji just shook his head. "That's enough for you, you can eat during breakfast."

"Buttt Sanjiiiiii…." Luffy whined pathetically rolling about the table. "I'm so hungry."

Sanji sighed, there was still a lot of time before breakfast and Sanji wanted to experiment in the new kitchen, he said he wasn't going to make his lazy captain anymore food but that was a complete lie, he loved the look of content on Luffy's face.

He would prefer the look of love that appeared on Nami-swan and Robin-chan's face but for now he could deal with just having his captain's look of lazy comfort that appeared on Luffy's face.

So with that thought in mind he continued cooking Luffy a variety of dishes, the house elves continued to cook but looked at him with mild respect and surprise. But for the most part they ignored him and continued to cook the food required to comfortably feed the entire school.

Finally it was getting later towards 8:00 so Sanji stopped his cooking and looked at Luffy. "If we stay any later we'll be late for breakfast, and you wouldn't want that now would you?"

"But I like your cooking better." Luffy managed to say through mouthfuls of food.

Sanji was truly touched but he knew that Luffy would regret not seeing Usopp or Zoro in the morning, he could never say that however, he would never hear the end of it. "Uhm, well, the post is coming and I would rather not miss anything."

"Oh ok." Luffy replied, stuffing the remainder of his food into his mouth.

He stood, stretching and almost falling over, he was a bit off balance from the amount of food in his belly, he quickly rectified that.

"Let's go to the food hall then!" He shouted, pointing out to the general direction of the great hall.

Sanji led the way, he didn't trust his captain's sense of direction any more than he trusted Zoro's sense of direction.

They finally made it to the Great Hall, Luffy had been content to walk in silence and so Sanji respected his decision and made no move to break the silence that blanketed the duo.

They both sat down next to each other and Luffy finally allowed himself to succumb to the nap that he had wanted since Sanji woke him up.

For the entire week, breakfast passed in the same fashion, Luffy mostly used the time to lightly nap and Sanji collected mail, he glanced up at the teachers table, reminded of their personalities vividly.

The teachers were all weird in their own unique ways.

Professor Sprout took them in herbology, she was a short stout woman who happened to be the house leader of Hufflepuff.

They had herbology outside in greenhouses and always came out stinking like dung, but the lessons were quite relaxing despite the stuffy atmosphere that the greenhouses produced. Professor Sprout was kind and allowed them to talk when she was not.

Professor Binns, their history teacher, was an actual ghost, and despite being an awesome creature his class was boring as hell. Brook certainly would not enjoy that class due to his extreme fear of ghosts.

Apparently, he had fallen asleep when there was a fire in his staff room, he burned right along with the rest of the room. But he woke up the next day and continued to teach. He was very boring and talked constantly about the goblin wars and Luffy found it hard to stay awake.

So, instead, he spent that class catching up on lost sleep.

Astronomy saw them up at the tallest tower on a Wednesday night (morning) studying the stars, often Luffy would fall asleep during that class again. Sanji would just copy down enough notes for the pair of them.

Professor Flitwick was a very tiny man, he taught them charms. The professor stood on a box to talk to them.

The first charm that they learned was "Wingardium Leviosa." The charm to make objects float. Zoro surprised everybody except for Sanji and Luffy when he pulled out three wands.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" He shouted through the wand in his mouth, waving all three in sync to cast the charm.

"My my, I have never seen anyone use three wands." Flitwick said, looking confusedly at the three wands. "Are they identical?"

"Uhm, I don't think so, I didn't really pay attention when Ollivander said what they were made of." Zoro replied, having pulled out the wand from his mouth.

After that most looked at Zoro in mild terror and respect.

Professor McGonagall was every bit as strict as she looked, Sanji was a bit late to class with Luffy trailing behind him.

But as they looked around the classroom they saw neither hide nor hair of their teacher. The only thing atop the teachers' desk was a tawny cat. But there was something familiar about the cat. "Hey Professor, sorry for being late." Luffy said to the cat.

The 'cat' transformed into their teacher and looked at Luffy appraisingly. "Well done on recognising my animagi form Mr Potter, but that does not excuse you nor Mr Malfoy for being late. A point will be deducted for your tardiness."

They spent the majority of the lesson taking notes which was quite difficult due to how unused Luffy was to using a quill, Sanji ended up writing his notes once again, making Luffy promise to purchase pens over the summer.

At the mention of the summer Luffy's face darkened. He had assumed he would stay at school but no, he had to go back to the Dursleys, or maybe he could ask Sanji or Zoro or even Usopp to take him in. Oh well, it wasn't close enough to worry about.

Then they were given a match and told to turn it into a needle. Luffy excelled at this point, well, he was excited to learn how to turn things into meat and thus tried quite hard. Sanji, not so much, his needle still had a red head and a wooden body.

(Well maybe it wasn't anything like a needle. Hey, it was hard!)

The class that most of the year was looking forward to was Defence Against the Dark Arts, but everyone was let down. Professor Quirrell droned on about how the room stunk of garlic because he pissed off a vampire and didn't want him to hunt him down.

Then he went off on a tangent about how he got the turban off an African prince because he defeated a zombie but Sanji was quite dubious, Luffy however, was hanging onto every word. But when Sanji asked how he defeated the zombie Quirrell went quite pink and began talking about the weather, the turban smelt disgusting as well.

Friday dawned early, Sanji and Luffy following their usual routine of going down to the kitchens and Sanji cooking for Luffy and Luffy consuming anything that was placed in front of him.

They walked to the hall like every other day, and the whispers began just like they had all week, it was getting a bit annoying for Luffy.

They plonked down at their designated table and Luffy immediately went to sleep, resting his head on his arms. Sanji began sipping on some tea that was quite conveniently placed.

"Hey, see that boy over there."

"Where?"

"Next to the Malfoy boy. With the glasses, he's sleeping."

"Is that..?"

"Yep, Harry Potter. What's he doing here?"

And they went on and on and on as more students sleepily filtered into the Great Hall, in fact, the whispering only increased. Luffy remained oblivious to the whispering, too busy catching up on any lost sleep.

Sanji however, heard every single word, and frankly it was pissing him off. He pulled a toothpick out and rolled it about his teeth, lips clenching around the wooden object. A familiar build slipped down next to him, punching him in the shoulder, _hard._

"You look like you're about to kill everyone in this room." Zoro whispered lazily.

Sanji simply glared heavily at the stupid swordsman. "They're all talking about him like he's the new messiah. It's really starting to piss me off."

"Meh, he can deal with it." Zoro said, shrugging and sipped from his coffee.

Just then the daily post arrived, startling both Sanji and Zoro. Southy came and dropped a letter on Luffy, seemingly unconcerned at his masters' state of consciousness. "That is such a weird bird." Zoro commented.

Then Zoro Jnr. (Sanji had called him junior when he found out that Zoro was alive and _here_ ) dropped the daily mail next to the wrong person before picking it up and giving it to Sanji. There was also a letter, and the cursive writing of his father gave away who it was.

He burned the letter and opened the daily mail, not really considering the front of the paper, nothing interesting in there. He folded it up and shoved it in his leather shoulder bag.

Zoro looked at Zoro jnr. with vague disgust. Zoro jnr. cocked his head at Zoro in interest. "Why is your owl looking at me like that?"

Sanji harrumphed. "It's very similar to you, gets lost easily, likes to nap but is freakishly strong."

Just then then there was a loud splash! Zoro jnr. was currently sitting in Zoro's pumpkin juice. "Hey! Stupid bird! Get outta my juice!"

Zoro walked back to his table, steam pouring out of his ears, he had some catching up to do with schoolwork and he was usually training in the afternoons and did not have time to do his class work.

Sanji began waking up Luffy who was still lightly snoring. Luffy finally awoke, jolting upright from his napping. The letter almost fluttered to the floor before Luffy grabbed it tightly. It read;

Dear Harry,

I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three?

I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Southy.

Hagrid

Luffy got Sanji to write yes on the back and he reattached it to Southy who promptly flew off with his reply.

"We'll want to get to class, it's in the dungeons with Professor Snape. He doesn't take lightly to stragglers, especially Gryffindors." Sanji explained.

Luffy just shrugged and followed Sanji out of the hall. "Wait, we also have it with the Slytherins."

Sanji didn't say anymore but Luffy got the general idea. Wait for Zoro so that he doesn't get lost.

"Hey Seamus! Hurry up!" Luffy yelled at the Slytherin table, where aforementioned sandy haired boy was sitting still drinking his coffee.

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming." Zoro replied, slipping an apple into his bag and draining the rest of his coffee.

He slunk over to where they were standing in the middle of the Great Halls doors. Many stared at the now trio in wonder, why the hell were Gryffindors and Slytherins getting along so well?

"Let's go to Potions!" Luffy shouted. "Lead on Sanji."

Sanji nodded, and began walking to where the dungeons were. They almost lost Zoro a few times, or Zoro lost them, he kept on walking in the wrong direction.

 _No Zoro, don't turn when we are walking in a straight line._

Finally they made it with a few minutes to spare, they stood around the classroom door, waiting for the Professor to make it. "OH crap!" Luffy shouted slapping his head. "I forgot Ron."

"Who?" Zoro asked.

"A new friend." Sanji replied for Luffy.

"Ahh, dammit all." Luffy said, hitting his fist on the floor.

"He's a big boy, he can make it here in his own." Zoro said.

"Like you can talk, shitty marimo, you couldn't find a classroom if it would save your life." Sanji said offhandedly.

"What did you say stupid curly eyebrow?" Zoro asked, a tick mark appearing on his head.

"You heard me you lawn head."

"Why you…"

And they were brawling once again, in fact, they were brawling until Snape arrived, who took one look at the pair and promptly whipped out his wand and sent them apart with a flick of his wand.

"Fighting in the halls are we? 10 points from Gryffindor for starting it." The professor said, without stopping to ask who actually started it.

The previously mentioned teacher looked an awful lot like a vampire, his greasy black hair framed his pale face. His body was swathed in black clothes and a bulge in his sleeve was the only indicator of his wand that he had since put away.

Luffy personally thought that he looked a bit like Tra-guy did, pale face and bags under his eyes.

The rest of the class walked in, all Gryffindors glared at Sanji, he had already lost them so many points.

Luffy simply frowned, why had that teacher showed such obvious bias?

They all took their seats, the classroom was set up into tables that were made for four to sit at, Sanji, Zoro, Luffy and a mildly late Ron chose one of the tables.

The greasy haired man read out the role, pausing on Luffy's name. "Ahh, our newest celebrity." His beady eyes held a lot of hatred, not that Luffy actually understood what he had done to deserve such hate.

"Hey Luffy," Zoro nudged him. "How did you manage to piss off someone this early?"

Luffy only shrugged in response.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," Professor Snape began, his voice barely rose above a whisper, but the entire class grabbed onto his words like they were a lifeline. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

More silence reigned after Snape finished his little speech. Most were impressed at his speech but Sanji and Zoro just saw it as Snape saying that he was much better than them, but just saying it fancier.

"Potter!" Snape suddenly exclaimed. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Luffy looked perplexed, why the hell was he getting targeted? Hermione's hand went straight up. Was he supposed to know this? From Sanji's expression he didn't know the answer either.

"I don't know." Luffy said, forgetting to add 'sir', from Snapes' expression, it didn't go unnoticed.

Snapes' thin lips curled into a cruel sneer. "Tut tut – clearly fame isn't everything."

Luffy swallowed down his pride, this man had done nothing that would warrant his tongue nor his fists. Just because the man hated him didn't mean he was going to retaliate – some fights just weren't worth it.

But Sanji, he was a different story, Zoro knew to follow Luffys' example but Sanji just didn't have the same mentality to take that kind of crap. Back on the Baratie, he only attacked if someone didn't eat all of their food or if they were plain rude.

But he didn't want Luffy to take any crap like this, as if this stupid, greasy haired, hook nose asshole would be sneering if he knew exactly who Harry Potter really was. Sanji looked at Luffy and Zoro and noticed their cool, calm and collected postures.

It really brought out their maturity, something that took Sanji a while to understand his captain had. So Sanji stood down and instead gritted his teeth in anger at the stupid professor, he'd never understand why his parents actually _liked_ Snape.

"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" He inquired.

"Erm, wouldn't you have one? I mean, in this room?" Luffy asked, he had vague recollections of Chopper ranting on about medicines and a bezoar was one of the most important ones to keep.

Again, Hermione's hand was waving madly in the air. Again, Snape ignored her.

Instead, Snape bored his beady, empty little eyes into Luffy's, he was less than impressed at the answer the boy gave him, even if it was moderately correct. Snape scrutinised the boy, he had his mothers' eyes, his fathers' hair and his fathers' cheek.

He didn't like Harry Potter, he was a nuisance that was a painful reminder of his past. But even so, there was something… _odd_ about the boy, something that just didn't fit in, but for the life of him, Snape could not figure it out.

And he had managed to attract Draco Malfoy of all people, Narcissa had fled to Snape, bearing news that her ickle son managed to know Harry Potter of all people and they were acting as if they hadn't seen each other in _years._ But that was ludicrous, Snape can attest that Potter would not have seen Draco at all.

Then why were they bestie buddies? And why was Seamus Finnegan and Neville Longbottom both friends with him? They all seemed to have history with each other, even that Longbottom child who had his parents _tortured_ by one of the relatives of the Malfoy family.

It just didn't make sense, how were they all friends? Especially one of _his_ snakes. How could a snake befriend a lion? It was a very odd mystery, one that Snape intended to get to the bottom of, but first, he was going to interrogate the stupid excuse of a boy in front of him.

People were laughing, _at him_ stupid boy. "In the bottom of a goats' stomach." He snapped. "As for the powdered root of asphodel added to an infusion of wormwood, it would create a powerful sleeping potion known as the Draught of Living Death." When nobody moved Snape added. "Well, why don't you copy that down?"

The entire class sprang into action after those seven words, whipping out quills and unfurling parchment. But the Potter boy made no actions to.

"What, think you can make it by not copying anything down?" Snape sneered lazily at the boy, said boy looked up and met his leer full on.

"I cannot use a quill so San- I mean Draco will copy me some later." At his response Snape's eyes slightly widened, in anger, no doubt.

"You are unable to use a quill? Then you will do detention with me for the next week so that you can learn." He spoke, barely articulating the words, making his words smooth together.

Luffy swallowed down any protests he might have and sent warning looks at both Sanji and Zoro to ensure they also swallowed any protests they might make. "Yes sir, when will these happen?"

"As soon as you are finished with your dinner." Snape replied.

Luffy shrugged when the professor turned his back. Detention for an entire week? That was nothing, he could get Sanji to do his homework. They had a one-foot essay due in charms on the properties on the floating charm.

The rest of the class was spent creating a simple potion that cured boils. Snape had paired them up and this did not bode well. He criticised everybody, there was not one student he complimented as he swished around the classroom in his black robes.

Luffy still just silently bit his tongue as Snape unfairly picked on him, but then he insulted Sanji's. It took every ounce of self-restraint Luffy had to not just pound this stupid professor into the ground.

But Luffy knew that Sanjis' potion would be perfect, his logic being that Sanji was a professional cook and potion making was similar to cooking.

Zoro's, however was quite awful, in fact, between Zoro and Sanji, Zoro almost melted the cauldron a total of 5 times.

Every time, Snape seemed to turn a blind eye to the Slytherins' failure.

Finally they were finished with that period and that godamn teacher, Luffy had been _that_ close to kicking the stupid teachers' stupid teeth in.

He was still fuming when they went to the Great Hall for lunch. But soon, the food cheered him up very quickly. "What time are you going to Hagrids?" Sanji asked, he was munching on a perfectly created salad sandwich.

Zoro was not sitting with them currently, he was silently watching them from across the hall, only one eye open. He probably wasn't used to having both eyes.

"At 5, you can come too." Luffy spoke around the meat that was hastily shoved in his mouth. "Zoro can too."

And with those last words the rest of their lunch was spent eating, well, in Luffys' case, shovelling. "Hey Seamus, wanna come with?" Luffy shouted across the room, ignoring the glares he received for interrupting other people's lunch.

Zoro shrugged in reply, standing up and walking over to the Gryffindor table. A couple of seconds later Usopp walked over as well. "Hey, Harry, can I come with you as well?"

"Sure! Then it's settled, the four of us will go to Hagrids!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Um, Harry, can I come too?" Ronald Weasley had sidled up to the quartet.

"Yeah, of course."

So it was settled, the five of them, a quintet? Would all go to Hagrids for afternoon tea.

When the time hit 4:30, the five of them walked purposefully to Hagrids cabin that they had noticed on the initial walk to the castle. They almost lost Zoro once again because he began walking towards the dark, ominous, forbidden forest.

"Hey, moss for brains! How can you get lost on a straight path to Hagrids hut?" Sanji asked, confusing Ron for his nickname.

"Why do you call him green things?" Ron asked.

"Hmm? Well, he used to have dyed green hair." Sanji quickly thought up an excuse, believing that his excuse seemed plausible enough.

"Oh, ok." He replied, seeming to accept the explanation.

They arrived at Hagrids cabin and Luffy knocked on the door. "Hey Hagrid! It's Harry!"

The oak door creaked open and Hagrid peered down at the quintet. "I see yer brought some friends Harry, tha's nice. I got enough fer yer all." Hagrid said, moving to allow them inside.

As soon as they got inside Fang jumped on them, wagging his short tail and slobbering all over their clothes.

"Hagrid, these are my friends; Seamus Finnegan, Draco Malfoy, Neville Longbottom and Ron Weasley."

"Malfoy eh?" But Hagrid made no further comment on Sanji's name. "Weasley tho'? The freckles and red 'air give it away. I spent half me life keepin' yer brother' ou' of tha Forbidden Fores'."

Ron's cheeks turned bright red, darker than his natural orange hair. The smatterings of freckles and pimples were probably closer to his cheek colouring.

On the inside of the hut there was only one cosy room. In one corner, a bed was pressed up against the wall and a patched up quilt was haphazardly thrown over it. To another wall was a fire place with roaring flames flickering away inside, it was made of stone and a pot of pewter was hung over it. In the middle was a large table made of a kind of wood.

The room gave off a general air of cosiness and home. Hagrid gestured to some rickety chairs, "Si' down while I make yer some tea." He said, walking over to the pot slowly boiling and readied six cups, complete with a jug of milk and sugar cubes that were too large to be used without causing serious health problems.

They all took their separate seats and accepted the tea and homemade 'rock' cakes, they really were like rocks but Luffy ate them regardless. "These are delicious Hagrid." He said while piling them into his mouth.

Hagrid beamed at the praise and served Luffy more rock cakes, Luffy noticed that nobody else was eating the rock cakes, why though? They were delicious! If only a tiny bit hard. "Yer too kind Harry." He boomed.

Luffy smiled, teeth and all. "So, how ha' your firs' week bin?" Hagrid asked, sitting down on his own, sturdy chair.

"It sure was fun although I don't like Professor Snape." Luffy said.

"Aye, Snape used ter be one o' You-know-who's supporters but apparently Dumbledore got 'im to change sides. He's a right rude one, better watch out for 'im." Hagrid said, stroking his beard thoughtfully.

"Yeah, well I have detention with him all week after dinner." Luffy replied happily.

"What'd yer do to deserve tha'?" He boomed, taking a sip from his tea, the sight was quite out of place. He even was wearing oven mits as to not burn his hands.

"I just think that he doesn't like me." Luffy commented, also sipping from his tea but immediately jolting. "HOT!" He shouted, clutching his tongue out and waving it around.

The sight was quite abnormal. Ronald thought, he meant, look at his tongue! It was so damn long. But nobody else was flipping out at the sight so it must be a normal occurrence, he deducted.

"I'll get yer some wa'er." Hagrid got up and began bustling around, grabbing a mug that was more to the size of a small bucket and filled it with cooling water.

Luffy skulled it, gagging a bit and spilling some down his front.

Sanji picked up the newspaper that was lying near the teapot on the table. He promptly choked on the tea that he was currently sipping. On the front page, written in bold large letters was:

 **GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST**

Why would anyone try to break into Gringotts? Sanji thought to himself, however he quickly brought himself out of his musings to talk to the rest of the group and properly read the newspaper.

"Hey guys! There's been a break in at Gringotts." That immediately got everybody's attention.

Luffy sat up straighter, Zoro opened his eye open lazily, Usopp looked vaguely shocked before whispering to Ron how he had once broke into Gringotts and how it was so easy. Ron, only payed attention to Sanji, he didn't believe a word the Hufflepuff was spouting.

Sanji read out the entire article. "Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day. "But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokes goblin this afternoon.

"Hey, wasn't 31st July the day _we_ went to Gringotts Hagrid?" Luffy asked curiously, he had remembered the date solely because it was Harry's birthday.

 _Hmmm, well, Hagrid seems shifty about the mystery vault but I reckon that's what they were after._ Luffy quietly thought to himself, accepting the rock cake Hagrid offered.

He struck a conversation with Zoro, Sanji and Usopp, Sanji was to keep an eye on the newspaper for any news whilst Usopp and Zoro were going to look for anybody suspicious.

His reasoning was that Usopp could probably pick them with his sniper eyes and Zoro had plenty of experience at looking for criminals having briefly been a bounty hunter and all. Sanji could probably also tail anybody suspicious but Luffy decided that two was enough and if Usopp and Zoro needed back up they would be screwed.

Dinner flew by in a flash leaving Luffy wishing that he never had detention with Professor Snape. "Well, I'm off! See you all tomorrow!" He shouted, flinging his shoulder bag over his shoulder.

He made his way down to the dungeons, surprising himself by not getting lost. He rapped thrice on the oak door to Snapes' room, Luffy had noticed that he was not at dinner so he must be inside his room.

The door swung open, hinges creaking in protest. "Enter." Snapes' voice came curtly.

"You will be copying done the recipe for the Draught of Living Death tonight, and you will do it with a quill, if you do not have one you can use this one." A black quill was thrust in Luffy's direction and a pot of ink floated to the top of the desk.

It was well past 11 by the time Luffy got back to his room, and to Luffy's dismay, the fire had been burned to the embers and there was little warmth.

He substituted by wrapping himself in multiple blankets that he had noticed had been stacked beside everybody's beds, _the house keepers must be very nice._ He thought.

Buried in the warmth and the fact that time was slowly ticking towards 12 o'clock Luffy quickly fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

The following morning occurred as per normal, however, as the duo made their way down to the common room Sanji noticed a sheet on the notice board stating that they would be having flying lessons on Thursday and it would be with Slytherin.

"Hey Luffy." Sanji said in a hushed tone. "Looks like we will be having flying lessons with Zoro."

"Flying!?" Luffy abandoned any pretence of silence. "Awesome!"

"SHH." Sanji kicked his captain in the head, causing a large lump to form amongst his black hair.

"Ow." Luffy whined, rubbing the bump on his head.

"We don't want anybody to wake up and ask where we are going Luffy, jeez." Sanji said, crossing his arms and leant up against the wall.

Unbeknownst to the duo, a singular red haired boy was wiping sleep from his eyes and was eavesdropping on their conversation.

"But Sanji, you didn't need to kick me." Luffy still rubbed his head.

Sanji just sighed in response. "Come on, we gotta get to the kitchens now."

Ron wondered why they were calling each other Sanji and Luffy, he didn't even know what those two names _meant_. Ron honestly couldn't be bothered to do much more than eavesdrop at that moment, and after a few minutes of deliberation he went back to bed.

There was at least a solid two hours before he actually had to get up. He would definitely spend that time sleeping and dead to the world.

By the time that breakfast rolled around Ron had forgotten about the entire incident.

The week continued onward and everyone compared their experiences about flying. Sanji informed Luffy that it was very fun and that he was pretty good at flying. Usopp hadn't ever ridden a broomstick before. Zoro and Sanji began a betting pool between the two on who could fly better.

As the day before flying lessons dawned the claims became much more outlandish, one person even said that they had ridden with the Chudley Canons.

Hermione began to bore people with facts from a "Quidditch Through The Ages", everyone was quite pleased when she was interrupted by the mail. Sanjis' daily mail brought him yet another owl which held a letter from his father, this one he actually read.

And promptly had to leave, the letter mostly was telling him how disappointed Lucius was with him and how he would make him transfer to Drumstrang Academy if he didn't immediately change houses or come home.

He burned it with the lighter he always had in his pocket and calmed himself down, he had nakama who cared about him and Lucius was not _half_ as bad as his other father.

He returned to the hall just as Luffy was finishing up on his second or third serving of _this_ breakfast. Usopp was clutching a glass ball that had a criss cross pattern covering the outside of the clear textile. Inside the ball was a murky white substance, it looked a lot like smoke. "Hey! Isn't that a remembrall?"

Sanji asked because he was curious, why would Usopp need one? He usually had a great memory.

"Yeah it is, I don't know why my grandma sent it to me." Usopp scratched his head, but funnily enough the remembrall immediately turned scarlet.

"Doesn't that mean you forgot something?"

"Mhm, the problem is, I can't remember what I forgot!" He exclaimed, scratching his head even more fiercely.

Sanji left Usopp to remembering and made his way next to Luffy, he chewed on his toothpick.

Lessons for the day blurred together to form an amalgamation of true boredom.

At approximately 3:30 the entirety of the Gryffindor first years made their way down to the Quidditch pitch, the Slytherins were already there when they arrived, as were about 20 brooms.

Much to Luffy and Sanjis' dismay, it seemed that Zoro hadn't arrived. "Zoro probably got lost." Luffy smiled at the thought of the swordsman getting lost. "He'll find his way eventually."

"HEY! HOW DO I GET DOWN FROM HERE!?" All of the year looked up to the Astronomy tower and were extremely surprised (sans Luffy and Sanji of course) to see none other than Seamus Finnigan clinging onto the top of the Astronomy Tower.

He looked extremely lost.

"HEY! MOSS HEAD! YOU JUST JUMP!" Sanji called back.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME ERO COOK?!" And then, without any further ado Zoro jumped.

Half of the year screamed in terror. Luffy laughed and Sanji rolled the toothpick about his teeth.

Nobody actually heard the buff boy scream out a spell but before anybody could blink, his three wands were out and he was waving them about, casting wind spells to calm his ascent.

When he carefully landed on the ground he was rushed by the Slytherins and Gryffindors, they were all either cheering in admiration or admonishing him in his recklessness. "SEAMUS FINNIGAN!"

The year turned to look at the newcomer, it was Professor Hooch, she looked like a hawk with yellow eyes that were quite intense. Her hair was dropping past her shoulders and was quite a grey colour.

"Relax Professor, I do it all the time." Zoro said.

"Do you?! Should I be relaxing!?" Professor Hooch screeched.

"Yeah, I did it the other day." Zoro replied.

"I cannot believe how reckless you were. And we'll see what Professor Snape has to say about this. Class dismissed." She dragged Zoro who was quite calm despite his current predicament.

"Shishishi, he's screwed." Luffy said happily, chuckling at his friend's situation.

"Yeah, he is." Sanji chewed on his toothpick.

"Hey Sanji, do you think you could teach me how to ride a broom?" Luffy asked the blonde haired boy.

Sanji shrugged. "I don't see why not. Go stand next to one of the brooms."

Luffy did as told, looking at the cook for further instruction. "Now say up."

"UP!" The broom immediately leapt up into Luffys' outstretched hand, most of the class had already left, no doubt cheering at the prospect of a free period.

"Very well done, now mount it like you would a horse, you gotta have a good centre of gravity." Sanji explained and watched as Luffy swung a leg over the wooden body.

"Good, now I want you to gently kic- I SAID GENTLY." Luffy had already risen to quite a considerable height and was looking quite excited.

"HEY SANJI I'M FLYING!" Luffy loved the feeling of being up in the air, currently his hair was being pushed back by a cold wind, it was quite like the feeling of sitting on top of the figure head, on both the Merry and Thousand Sunny.

"Yeah I can see that moron!" Sanji yelled back, he was smiling despite his words.

"Imma go for a fly." Luffy called down to Sanji.

"Sure, just let me come with you." He called back, mounting a broom and kicking off the ground and hovering up to where Luffy was currently waiting for him.

They flew off, away from the Quidditch pitch and further towards the Forbidden Forest and the lake, there was a mass of tentacles underneath the surface which was mildly disturbing, but the duo still flew across it.

But as they did the tentacles came up, at first Sanji thought it was going to attack them. Luffy didn't, and even if it did then he knew he was capable of defeating whatever enemy might dare cross them.

The tentacles didn't attack them and stayed in the black masses of the water. Luffy waved at it and was not surprised when it waved its' tentacles back in a motion that was similar to that of a wave – just a little bit more spastic and with more water.

They flew up to the edges of the Forbidden Forest. "Sanji, I want to go in the forest."

"Well no, it's against the rules… And you've gone, you idiot." Sanji followed his captain into the darkness of the forest.

Luffy had abandoned his broom in favour of walking, he didn't even realise how late it was. He walked with no regard as to how noisy he was, years of walking through forests before realising they were dangerous should have taught him to be more quiet but no, instead, he basically stomped through the forest, making sure to crack every stick that might dare throw itself down in front of him.

Luffy reflected back on the events that had occurred since coming to Hogwarts, he really _really_ enjoyed this place, I mean, they got to do freaking magic! They had a ghost for a professor (even if he was really boring)! And through it all he had met some of his nakama that was the biggest plus for him.

Meeting Sanji, Zoro and Usopp had really changed his life for the better. He was going to have to ask the Headmaster if he was allowed to stay at somebody's house for the Summer, no way in hell was he going back to the Dursleys.

And if he wasn't allowed to go somewhere he would steal a ship and sail away, he even had a crew once more.

He was brought back from his musings at the introduction of a beautiful horse, it was skeletal looking and shrouded in darkness. But despite this Luffy walked up to the creature, it neighed gently at him and nuzzled his outstretched hand.

"Hey there." He said to the creature, rubbing its head softly.

Sanji finally caught up to his stray captain and saw him patting, wait, what was he patting? The _thing_ was a mockery of a horse, and yet Luffy was petting it and cooing gently to the creature. It was thin, one could say it was skeletal as Sanji could see no skin atop its' body.

"Hey Luffy, what is that?" Sanji asked.

"I don't know, but it's pretty fricking cool!" Luffy exclaimed, the horse neighed in dismay at the sudden noise but with another stroke from Luffy, the horse stayed still.

"Huh, well we should probably get back." Sanji commented, steering well away from the creepy horse, he had an idea of what it could be but he would have to consult a book to be absolutely sure.

"I wanna keep exploring."

"Well, we are already late to dinner so I suppose it can't hurt."

(How wrong he truly was would come to Sanji's attention at a great cost.)

They continued to trek through the woods, often with Sanji crouching down to figure out what kind of natural foods were growing, none that he could specify. But hopefully, if he read some more he could discern which ones would be good with delicious meals.

Luffy was mostly just acclimatising himself to the new surroundings, he loved exploring, regardless of where he was. New stuff was always exciting, and he hadn't had much excitement over his first 11 years of life here so this was paradise.

Luffy picked up a stick, Sanji didn't question it, it was all part of a man's romance.

Eventually it began to darken so greatly that the pair felt it settle into their bones. The forest began to introduce more sounds to the duo, weird owls cooing, insects chirping and an odd scuttling noise.

The odd scuttling noise was quite unsettling to say the least and the pair carefully listened for any noises that would alert them to where their enemy was hiding. But alas, the noise faded away into the gentle noises of the swaying trees and undergrowth rustling with small animals.

Even so, all noise faded away to leave nothing but the sound of their breathing and footsteps. There were no more sounds regarding the smaller animals, no breeze to rustle the trees leaves, no odd scuttling noise. Not even a sound of water could be heard. There was nothing, as if a blanket of silence had fallen over the forest and its occupants.

They approached a small clearing, here, the full moon reached down into the small cleared space, illuminating a small pond and various reeds, there was mist rising off of the water. But there was a silver trickle of some kind of liquid staining the rocks and whatever land it managed to end up on.

Sanji's toothpick fell out of his mouth, aforementioned limb gaping at the sight before him. As for Luffy, he inhaled sharply and his scar began to ache.

The sight was a gruesome one, a hooded figure was bent over a body of a most majestic creature, but that was not what sent the two Straw Hats into a state of shock, it wasn't even the disgusting sight of _it_ drinking the blood of the unicorn. No, it was the state of _evil_ that rolled off it in disgusting waves, it was as if an oily, black smoke had appeared and began to choke them. It was just so _wrong._

The only one who had ever given off such a disgusting aura was Blackbeard and he was long gone, although, they weren't object to the idea Blackbeard actually being _alive._

But the thing raised its head at the pair, as if only just noticing its' audience. They didn't see any eyes but its unseeable gaze sent shivers down their spines.

None uttered a single word, not until Luffy shouted. "What the hell are you?!"

The thing turned around and without any visible movements, it glided away, black cloak trailing behind it. "I don't like whatever that was." Sanji muttered, visibly shaken.

Luffy said nothing, staring at the space that the abomination had occupied. "Let's get back to the castle."

And then another unsettling noise echoed through the eerily silent forest. "Are those…?" Sanji asked, trailing off at the end unsurely.

Luffy cocked his head at the noise. "Sanji." He didn't have to say anything else, Sanji was already planning for battle.

They stood, tensed for the inevitable battle that was to come. The horse hooves echoed loudly, getting ever increasingly close. Luffy began to wind up his left arm while he whipped out his wand in his right hand.

Sanji lifted his foot, circling it around his head, finding his centre of gravity and holding his balance. He also had brought out his wand, there wasn't really much either had learnt that would really defend themselves against a magical enemy.

But either way, there was a certain instinct that assured them that holding their wands would bring them at least a small level of security.

And from the trees and mist came a weird looking figure. It was half horse and half human "Who are you? What is your business here?"

The creature was wielding a sword, which was held tightly in his hand unwaveringly. "I am Harry Potter and this is Draco Malfoy. Who and what are you?"

"Mr Potter?" The creature immediately sheathed its' sword. "I am a centaur, my name is Firenze, it is not safe for you two here, let me take you back. I need to see Dumbledore. Come along, ride along my back."

Sanji and Luffy both hefted themselves up onto the back of Firenze. As soon as they were settled down Firenze set off at a fast trot, passing through the trees so fast that they became little more than a blur.

Finally, the edge of the forest came into view, and with it, the light of the stars and the moon shining down upon the grounds.

Little droplets of dew glistened in the light, reflecting it back to create a shining mirage of rain drops. "This is where we will depart Mr Potter, it was an honour."

The centaur dropped down in a deep bow, Luffy bowed back to Firenze, it was only respectful. "I hope to meet you again Firenze, until then, see ya!"

 _That one is truly an odd one isn't he? He truly gave off such an odd aura. I believe that he will do great things, until next time Harry Potter._

"Hey Sanji, we should probably hurry."

Nothing was spoken, but a noticeable change in the pace occurred. They didn't speak again until they reached the portrait, well, they would have gone inside but it appeared to them that the Fat Lady had disappeared, it seemed that she had gotten bored of letting students in all day.

"Damn, now what do we do?" Sanji questioned his quiet captain.

"We go check out the hallway on the 3rd floor that's out of bounds of course." Luffy smiled widely at Sanji's expression, one of little shock due to the regular occurrences of such things.

He meant that every bloody time they were told to _not_ go somewhere of course their damned captain wanted to go check out the fuss. Just remember bloody Skypiea for instance, the land of the fake God Eneru/Enelu, who could actually be bothered to remember that assholes name?

But the incident still had a good outcome and they ended up with a boatload of gold and they saved the Sky Island from their absolute Dictators rule.

Even so, as they raced through the hallways, trying desperately not to get caught by Filch, or even worse _Snape,_ Sanji felt a sense of excitement that was never present in his dull life dictated by fancy parties and being _proper._

The only thing missing was the sea and the Thousand Sunny or the Going Merry. Oh well, beggars couldn't be choosers.

Luffy was simply excited about a new adventure, one with his nakama. Over the years the amount of adventures he had partook in were extremely limited, to the point that if he got outside at all, any amount of new scenery was a new adventure.

Sure there were times when they had all gone out for Dudley's birthday, mostly things that would not cost much if anything for his scrawny frame to partake in these activities.

Finally they approached the third floor corridor, it had taken a few times to reach there as the staircases kept on moving, eventually Luffy shot his arm over to the barrister on the corridor and dragged Sanji through the air to the floor.

"Hey!" Sanji shouted as they shot through the air, a little too loud in his own damn opinion.

"Shishishi!" Luffy exclaimed, patting his hair in an attempt to hold down a hat that was no longer atop his mess of hair.

They landed safely, well, Luffy did. Sanji on the other hand took a couple of rolls against the hard stone floor before successfully stopping himself and landing on his feet. "You could have killed me!" Tick marks appeared on Sanji's face and he stomped on his captain head.

"I'm sowy." Luffy now had several eggs on his head and a swollen lip that he had attempted to speak through.

Sanji sighed heavily. "Let's go."

They walked to the door looming ominously at the end of the hallway, Luffy rattled the door. "It's locked. Oh well, looks like I'll have to break it."

Another well aimed kick to the head and Luffy was sitting down apologising profusely. "Don't be an idiot, if nobody heard our ruckus before then we should _not_ break the damn door, besides, I know a better technique."

Sanji whipped out his wand, one made of Acacia and born of unicorn hair, it was slender and not quite 11 inches long.

He whispered to the door lock. "Alohomora."

There was a click and the door fell away to reveal a room bathed in moonlight, it seemed to be bare except for the figure laying on the ground, Sanji and Luffy were too far away to make out the details.

With this in mind they crept closer, quietly of course, as to not garner any unwanted attention from the creature. The creature lifted up its' head, all three of them and sniffed the air.

They both thought that it was going to go back to sleep when its' curiosity was sated. But of course, since Luffy was part of the equation nothing ever went according to plan, the creatures heads _roared_ at them.

"Bad dog! Now, gomu gomu no pistol!" Luffy's elasticised arm raced towards the dog that reminded him of the dog fox thing they met at Thriller Bark, another example of Luffy racing in headfirst. His fist connected with the middle head of the Cerberus, a resounding crack echoed through the room.

The beasts' middle head fell limp and staggered away from its' prized possession, a trap door that dug into the dark recesses of the cobbled floor.

"Huh, so it was guarding that." Sanji commented, sweat dropping at the now unconscious beast of a dog.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps filled their ears. "Hurry up Luffy, get us hidden."

Luffy smiled and grabbed Sanji, grabbing onto one of the support beams on the roof, he rocketed them up there, and not a moment too soon for the next second saw Filch flying in with his beast of a cat trailing after him with an air of innocence that was only a pretence.

"Did you hear that Mrs Norris? Go notify Professor Dumbledore." Filch crept further to where the beast was laying, he grabbed a broom from god knows where and poked the Cerberus.

The effect was instantaneous and the dog growled, a low sound that once emitted, filled them with a sense of pain. Filch jumped back, awkwardly landing which resulted in him sprawling.

Just then Professor Dumbledore swept into the room, swathed in periwinkle nightcap and gown. "What has happened Argus?"

Dumbledore swept his eyes about the room searching for any clues, both magical and normal. He heard the light breathing of two individuals, but where were they? "Dumbledore, what is the meaning of this?"

Snape gracefully walked into the room, no sleeping clothes to be seen, only his usual black robe and mop of grease. He had spent quite a number of hours lecturing that stupid Finnigan boy, who did he think he was?

Unbidden, the thought of James Potter came to mind, a reckless, arrogant fool. Apparently Mr Finnigan was so arrogant he thought he could jump from the Astronomy Tower, how he managed it down unscathed would forever remain a mystery but even so, the nerve of the child!

And now here he was, just finishing up on his detention when a patronous had come soaring through the air, Dumbledores' no doubt about it. Apparently the day was full of reckless surprises. In front of them lay the dog that had the task of protecting the first line of defence for the philosopher's stone.

Dumbledore discreetly sent feelers out with his Occlumency, only to promptly hit a block. What kind of sorcery was this? He could not touch the person/persons who were hidden on the beam. They were shielded by a barrier, one with the likes he had yet to encounter.

Well, if it was a true enemy they would have already attacked by now, not waited for Snape to arrive. He decided that after Snape and Argus left he would attack the block of thin air.

Up above Luffy and Sanji tried to stay as still as possible whilst still hearing what the teachers below were talking about.

They were _trying_ to be quiet when somebody tried to attack them, not physically, not even magically. No they were using quite a diluted version of _haki,_ that was simply astounding! The only ones Luffy had met that had the ability to do Haki were of his previous world and not this one.

Regardless, he didn't exactly have haki anymore but he still had a few tricks up his sleeve, he couldn't simply flat knock them out because it was most likely a teacher and there were multiple teachers down there, oh and you know, no bloody conqueror haki. One simply falling unconscious probably would raise alarm bells too.

"This does not bode a good future Albus, surely you understand that?" Snape asked, Argus had long since left, as to let the two speak without interference.

"Yes, yes I do Severus. That is why I ask of you a favour, would you leave me with Fluffy a moment?" Albus asked, eyes twinkling behind crescent spectacles.

"Of course, tell me what you find." Snape gave a mocking half bow and left.

"Now." He muttered and a quick spell was shot at the support beam, only one to stun of course.

There was a yelp before two young boys fell down, one was already up with his fist drawn back, his arm was stretching to quite a grotesque length. The other quietly got up, dusted himself of and started whirling his leg around.

Neither had drawn their wands.

In the dim light neither could see the other. "Lumos maximus!" Dumbledore shouted, waving his wand at the same time and thinking of a blinding _light._

The room burst into light and the sight before him surprised him to say the least. "Harry? Draco?"

"Oh, its' just Dumbledore." Harry relaxed, arm coming back into place with a sickening 'snap'!

"Why are you two here?" The other boy, the Malfoy boy, that is, had not lowered his leg. Not until he realised who he actually was in front of, immediately he lowered his foot and began apologising profusely.

"It's all Luf- I mean Harrys' fault. We went exploring and we didn't realise it was so late until we got back to the portrait and the fat lady was nowhere to be seen. Long story short we decided to do more exploring and ended up here." Sanji rushed out, desperately hoping that Dumbledore would believe his unbelievable lie. Hey! Lying wasn't his forte, it was that long-nosed freak specialty.

Dumbledore's mind was reeling, so they had been exploring? That made a lot of sense apart from the fact that a couple of first years had defeated a Cerberus singlehandedly. And that coupled with the stretching of Harry's limbs made Dumbledore question their story. And how had they been able to completely block out his Occlumency? Nothing made sense, but judging from Harry's expression he realised he would get nowhere forcing them to speak. As of now, Snape would follow the pair everywhere.

He voiced none of his concerns however, instead saying. "I see, well, it is quite late, allow me to escort you back to your dormitory. I'm sure you're both tired."

They walked in silence and when they finally reached the portrait the Fat Lady still had not returned. Dumbledore simply waved his hand and it swung inwards. "Goodnight boys."

As soon as the pair were out of earshot they exclaimed. "That was close! Hey, did you notice that the old geezer can do observational haki?"

"I don't think that it is just haki, it seemed weird for that. But either way yeah I noticed." Sanji replied, chewing on a toothpick, one that seemed to be ever present.

"Hmm, well, now that you mention it I guess it is. Hey, we should meet up with everybody tomorrow and plan an expedition to the third floor." Luffy said grinning, he really wanted to know what was hidden under the trapdoor.

Sanji just sighed in response, he knew there was no way he was going to be able to talk his captain out of it. They both went to bed after that little conversation.

Ron was snoring heavily when they entered the room and didn't stop on their account. "Jeez, does he ever shut up?" Sanji questioned.

Luffy laughed and threw a pillow at the ginger boy. The pillow landed square on his face, but instead of muffling the snores Ronald spoke gently to the pillow before abruptly cuddling it. Luffy and Sanji both snorted, well, Sanji snorted, Luffy bellowed out a laugh.

Most of the boys woke up to simply glare at Luffy before the clutches of sleep once again claimed them. "Shishishi, I'm going to sleep Sanji, see you in the morning."

Luffy was asleep before his head hit the pillow. "G'night captain." He replied long after Luffys' gentle snores (if there was such a thing) filled the room.

He laid on his bed and eventually, after several hours of deliberation, drifted to sleep.

Luffy slept in that day, Sanji didn't wake him up, even after Luffy had missed breakfast he remained in bed, dreaming of all of the meat he could consume. Eventually, at lunch time Sanji whirled his way up the stairs, singing the entire time. In his grasp were two items, one was – shockingly – a cigarette and in the other a blanket draped over his arm.

"Stupid captain, there he goes missing half the day because I didn't wake him. Oi! Up!" Sanji kicked Luffy out of his four poster bed where he was drooling into the pillow.

"Muwah? Wai no, Garp I'm up! I'm up!" Luffy rocketed out of bed and stood straight.

"Did you just call me Garp?" Sanji stared for a second before bending over and cackling. "Ahh, Garp ay?"

"Shut up Sanji." Luffy said good-naturedly. Luffy was also extremely tired, shown by the yawn that escaped his lips. "What have you got there?" He pointed at the black sheet.

"You have to wait until lunch, now, get dressed we gotta go." Sanji sat on his bed, smoking the cigarette, puffing out the smoke gently.

"Ok, let's go!" Luffy was ready and dressed like he usually was. (It was a wonder nobody had called him out on the way he wore his uniform).

Sanji trailed after his captain thinking through his plan once more, he was going to lure the Straw Hats to the room that was constantly changing. He had almost missed it the first time and had found it by accident.

The 'it' in question was a secret room that showed the wisher their hearts desire, in short terms, walk past it enough times and it will give you what you want. They had made it to lunch and Luffy immediately sat down and began scoffing down as much food as possible, according to him, he had already missed at least five meals, how Luffy figured that would remain a mystery.

Sanji checked to make sure that all members – members that they knew of – were present before holding up his treasure that was still on his arm.

He waved it around madly for a few seconds, capturing everybody's attention. "Mugiwara no Kaizoku!" Those were the only words needed, he sprinted from the hall, the crew in hot pursuit. Weirdly enough, that Ron guy had followed them and was actually keeping up, albeit a lot of panting.

They were going to have to lose him one way or another, but despite Sanji's best efforts Ron stubbornly kept up. Sanji looked at Luffy, "It's cool, he can be part of our crew!"

"Hey, if you're inviting more people to our crew then I want to vote, you can't just let random people in." Usopp shouted indignantly.

"Yeah I can, I'm the captain!" Luffy jabbed his chest to emphasise his point. "Sanji, where are we going?"

"That's a surprise, besides we are almost there." Sanji continued onward to the particular wall that would give them access to the room.

"All I see is a blank wall, are you sure you haven't gotten us lost?" Zoro asked, scratching his head.

"Shut up moss head! Like you have any room to talk!" Ok, focus, Sanji thought to himself, think about it and…

Presto!

The door materialised, one of wrought iron that seemed to be built into the stone that the wall was comprised of, the Straw Hats and Ron pushed their way inside and behind them the room shut with a clunk.

Before them lay a beach biome, one of white sand and sparkling seas, and, moored to the coast was the original, the Going Merry.


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N, if anyone is interested these are the official (Pottermore) properties of Luffys' sycamore wand: 'The sycamore makes a questing wand, eager for new experience and losing brilliance if engaged in mundane activities. It is a quirk of these handsome wands that they may combust if allowed to become 'bored,' and many witches and wizards, settling down into middle age, are disconcerted to find their trusty wand bursting into flame in their hand as they ask it, one more time, to fetch their slippers. As may be deduced, the sycamore's ideal owner is curious, vital and adventurous, and when paired with such an owner, it demonstrates a capacity to learn and adapt that earns it a rightful place among the world's most highly-prized wand woods.'_

 _She was there, and looking in the co_ ndition she had been given to them in. The ram figure head seemed to call them to her wooden floors (in Luffy's case – quite literally), there were no metal sheets keeping up the mast, no hastily patched up holes and no damaged keel.

It had been a while, even with the mini Merry on the Thousand Sunny, it just hadn't been the same. Usopp was the first to break out of the stupor they were in, "MERRY!" He launched himself at the figurehead, sobbing profusely and crying out apologies over and over.

Luffy was the next, punching out an arm to cling on the mast before launching himself over with a "Gomu gomu no rocket!"

Zoro and Sanji walked over at a much more sedate pace, despite the fact that Merry was one of their crewmembers they could still be calm and collected in the face of an old friend.

They all forgot about Ronald Weasley who didn't know where to look, Harry Potter's arm had just stretched like a rubber band, and what's weirder, nobody flinched at the sight. And the ship, and the flag. He had some research to do and he knew who to go to.

Nobody noticed when he left, Ron needed answers and he was silent enough in his sneaking about.

"It's good to see you Merry." Luffy said, wrapping his arms around the figurehead multiple times. "Ahh, now we just need a few more crew members and we'll be set."

"Sanji your artistic skills are awful! Let me draw the flag!" Usopp declared, grabbing painting supplies from god knows where in his bag, he sat down and pulled a new flag out and began painting.

"Not to say this isn't great and all but why are we here? Actually, where is here? And what happened to the red haired boy?" Zoro rapidly asked.

"Shut up moss-head, although, Ron probably shouldn't have seen as much as he did. Oh well." Sanji didn't seem too concerned and neither did the rest of the crew.

"We're all here because there's something wrong, Sanji and I were exploring last night and we came across… Well, I'm don't know what it is, I just know that it is incredibly evil." Luffy said in all seriousness, the crew had migrated into the dining room. Amazingly enough, the kitchen was stocked well. "I just know that it _felt_ wrong, like Blackbeard."

The crew members present felt their eyebrows raise to their hairlines, that was… That did not bode well. "Oh, and do you know that dog-fox Cerberus we met on Thriller Bark? We found another one and kinda beat it up."

That elicited a response of fond shaking of the head. "Wait, so there's a three headed dog in the castle?"

"Yep, and there's a trapdoor underneath which we are going to explore!" Luffy smiled wildly.

They just collectively sighed. "When are we going to go?" Zoro asked resignedly.

"Hmm, well, I wanna see the first Criddit match. Zoro, it's played on brooms 50 feet in the air!" Luffy shouted animatedly.

"Do you mean Quidditch?" The swordsman asked.

"That's what I said."

"Regardless of when we go we need a plan, what if somebody tries to take whatever the Cerberus is guarding?" Sanji questioned, the voice of reason, he was still smoking a cigarette which Zoro surmised he had gotten from this room.

"Um, Sanji." Usopp began. "Where exactly are we?"

"Oh, I don't know what this room is, I just know it gives you what you desire. I found it on accident whilst wishing I had a cigarette, this room opened up and voila, cigarette haven." Sanji explained, pulling out a packet of Marlboros.

"Huh, that's pretty cool." Usopp commented.

"It's a mystery room!" Luffy, predictably, exclaimed.

"Yeah, sure, let's go with that. Anyways, I reckon we should meet here every Wednesday night before Luffy and I have astronomy."

"Why?" Zoro asked.

"To train of course!" Their captain shouted. "We got so weak being in these bodies so we're gonna need to train to get strong, especially if we're going to meet that guy again."

And they were off, firstly they were simply doing runs that almost everybody, sans Zoro, had difficulty in doing (they were about 10km so there was no helping it). After their physical warmups they sparred, Luffy and Zoro. Sanji and Usopp.

And after all of that they began training their Haki, it was a life-saving skill to have so basically, quintessential.

And after everything was finished Sanji disappeared into the kitchen, most likely to cook.

They all lay on the beach, Zoro propped up against a palm tree snoozing, Usopp dangling his feet into the cool water next to the Merry and Luffy sat atop the figurehead, gazing out at the unseeable horizon.

Inside the Merry they had discovered their most prized possessions, Sanji had his kitchen in pristine condition, cigarettes and his special lighter. Usopp found Kabuto, his trusty side bag that was full to the brim of Skypiea dials, the Sogeking mask and his goggles. Zoro found Sake, bottles of it, his faithful katanas and his bandana. And Luffy had discovered his most faithful Straw Hat.

Sanji walked out of the kitchen. "Come grab your refreshments morons!" He shouted out to the collected crew.

They wandered into the kitchen, some faster than others. The drinks were simply delicious as always. "So, do we want to agree on Wednesday as our meeting day?" Luffy asked as he slurped down the drink, as uncouth as ever.

Three hell yeahs were shouted to the sky (or ceiling, whatever), they raised their glasses.

"To the Straw Hats!" Luffy shouted, everybody clinking at the same time.

Later that evening saw Luffy begging Sanji to let them go broom stick riding. "But Sanjiiiii!" Luffy whined for the umpteenth time, "I wanna go ride again, it was fun!"

"I'm not supplying you with brooms Luffy." Sanji said firmly.

"Hey Ron!" Aforementioned redhead looked up from where he was deep in conversation with the bushy know-it-all.

"Yeah Harry? Also, what's up with the Straw Hat?" He questioned, hoping desperately that the boy hadn't heard what him and Hermione were discussing.

"It was given to me by a very close friend as a promise." He said, looking fondly at the hat in his possession. "Is there any way you can get me a broom?" He asked hopefully.

"No, not me." At his downfallen expression Ron hastily added. "But Fred and George probably can."

"Awesome!" Luffy pumped a fist in the air.

"Ronnie-ickins" Speak of the devils.

"Did you call-"

"-For us?" They spoke in sync and had shown up like some weird comedy act, simply fading into existence (and wasn't that ironic).

"Yeah, Harry wants a broom to go riding on." Ron explained, gesturing at his new friend.

"Oooh, the little-" George started.

"-Troublemaker" Fred nodded his head appraisingly.

"We can do you one better."

"How about we take you down to Quidditch training?" Fred finished, smiling widely in sync with his counterpart.

"Sure! Thank you so much!" He shouted, exuberating excitement.

From his table Ron scowled, how come they never invited him to Quidditch training? And Hermione looked ready to kill for the complete disregard of rules.

As Luffy left with the twins and Sanji plonked down by himself far across the room and began to do homework Ron turned to Hermione. "Ok, so you heard what Draco shouted out right?"

"Yes, of course, it was 'Mugiwara no Kaizoku'." She quoted.

"Do you know what language that is?"

"I think- I think that it's Japanese." Bless the wealth of knowledge that was Hermione.

"Hmm, well, it gets weirder." Ron started. "So we got to a door that just appeared in front of us, and Sanji had a flag, it was a flag with a skull and cross bones with a straw hat. And Harry is wearing a Straw Hat now."

"A jolly roger?! And a Straw Hat?!" Hermione asked incredulously.

"Uhm?" Ron asked quite intelligently.

"A pirate ship flag, and a straw hat one? What was on the inside of the room?" Hermione asked, she was writing down everything on a scrap piece of parchment.

"There was a beach!" At her disbelieving stare he elaborated. "I'm not lying, there was even a ship anchored there."

"What kind of a ship?"

"One with a ram figurehead, but you should have seen Draco, Seamus, Neville and Harry, they all knew what it was and they seemed so happy to see it. And this is where things get weird."

"How could things get weirder?" Hermione muttered.

"Harry's arm _stretched_ to grab the, uhm mast? And pulled himself towards it." Ron finished.

"Stretched?" She shrilly shrieked, gaining several interesting looks, thankfully, Draco either didn't hear her or simply elected to ignore it.

"Yeah, like, what are those muggle things?" Ron asked, his Dad had been obsessed with them for some time.

"Rubber bands." Hermione finished for him absentmindedly. "This is really odd, I'll see what the library can tell me about Mugiwara no Kaizoku.

* * *

Luffy laughed along with the twins as they recounted some of their more daring pranks. "You really got Snapes' hair to turn pink?" At their nod he proceeded to laugh so hard that his stomach hurt. "Oh man, I would do anything to see that."

"We're so glad that we found an appreciative admirer." Fred said, ruffling Luffy's hat and ergo his hair.

"Shishishi." Luffy laughed, clutching the hat as it threatened to fly away on the air.

"We're almost there." George said.

They encountered Peeves along the way, but as fellow pranksters, Peeves made no move to inhibit their movement, instead nodding at the twins before floating away, ruffling all of the armours on the way.

"Hey Wood!" George shouted to a stout looking, muscular boy.

"What have you two got yourselves into now?" Wood asked, gesturing at Harry.

"He wanted to ride a broom-" George started.

"-So we told him to come with us-" Fred continued.

"-To training!" They said together.

Wood sighed, which was a clue as to how much the duo performed such shenanigans. "Ok, well, here ya go Potter."

A broom was thrown at Luffy, one that he caught with surprising nimbleness. He grinned widely, and was still grinning when he mounted the broom.

He kicked off, going to about 100 metres up in the air, "Yeah!" Luffy whooped into the light breeze that just brushed his hair and hat.

He sedately waited up there for _something_ to happen, and happen it did. It took a few seconds of Luffy looking around that he realized that his wand was no longer hidden up his sleeve, no, it was hurtling down to the earth below.

"Nope, wand! Come back!" He shouted, words carried away.

With one last glance below him he pointed the broom downwards and _dropped,_ the fall was so exhilarating, it probably would be more if he wasn't so focused on making sure that his precious wand didn't end up in matchsticks. He was only holding the broom with one hand, the other, clutched tightly on his head as to not allow his other prized possession to become lost.

Wind was hurtling around him now, cocooning him in a sound barrier that inhibited him from hearing any protests others had at him coming to the ground.

Finally the wand was in grasping range, just in time too, judging by how sharply he had to bring his broom up to halt his descent. Finally, as he stilled, he realised how many people were shouting at him, and, unfortunately, so was an emerald cloaked woman.

"Phew, that was close." Luffy said to the wand, slipping it back in its place hidden in his sleeve.

"Harry Potter!" Professor McGonagall bellowed. "Get down here at once!"

Luffy did as ordered, gently landing down onto the ground, mentally prepping himself for the lecture that was to ensue.

"Never have I in all of my Hogwarts career have seen something so _reckless!_ " She yelled, surprisingly calm despite the level of her voice, and was that a gleam of _excitement_ in her eyes? "Even so, I have never seen such a skilled dive. It would a shame to waste such talent, Wood, you needed a seeker? I will talk to Professor Dumbledore about a special exception."

"I'm sorry but what?" Luffy's mouth dropped.

"You're on the team Potter." Wood said beaming. "We do need a seeker."

The twins guffawed at Luffy's bemused expression. "Welcome to the team!" They shouted in unison.

"I'm, I'm on the team?" He asked excitedly and with a touch of apprehension.

"Yes." McGonagall said firmly, with that last word she turned heel and stalked away, cloak flying out behind her.

Luffy turned to Oliver. "Um, I don't actually know how to play Criddit."

"Don't worry, we'll cover the basics of _Quidditch._ " Wood said, placing emphasis on Quidditch. "We'll only go through the basics tonight, but we train three nights a week."

Fred and George left, presumably to continue on the training they were supposed to do. Wood pulled out his wand and yelled, "Accio Quidditch crate!"

A crate hurtled itself towards them at a startling speed, however, Wood caught the crate with ease and opened it, on the inside was a really shiny small ball about the size of a golf ball, a red ball the size of a basketball and two smaller balls that were rattling around in their restraints.

"Right," said Wood. "Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side. Three of them are called Chasers, they use the quaffle."

Wood grabbed the basketball and threw it at Luffy, he was quite surprised to notice how light it was. "The chasers use the quaffle to score goals through those hoops." He pointed at the hoops that reminded Luffy of hoops to coerce animals through.

"Ten points every time a chaser gets the quaffle through the hoop, understand?"

Luffy nodded his assent. "The keeper's job is to prevent the opposite team to get the quaffle into the goals. That's my position." Oliver said.

"What are those balls for?" Luffy asked curiously.

"I'll show you now." And Wood unclasped the restraints keeping the balls locked into the box, immediately, he picked up a bat that very much looked like a baseball bat.

The balls came back at them, violently, Luffy got ready to beat 'em up. "Quick!" Wood chucked Luffy a baseball bat, he held it loosely, waiting for the right moment to hit the balls.

As the balls came back like a boomerang Wood shouted. "They're called bludgers! The beaters keep those away from our team members and try and hit them at players on the other team."

And the training session passed, the only really exciting thing being the bludgers who Luffy looked forward to breaking one day. Wood had kept on oohing and ahhing at Luffys' "natural ability", he didn't really see what the big fuss was, sure he could catch a golf sized 'snitch' in about 10 minutes and he was the youngest seeker ever but seriously.

Between everything going on, Luffy barely had any time to meet up with his crew as he was being worked to the bone by Wood in preparation for the first game of the season. But despite everything, Luffy kept up in his insistence in training, besides, he always got a nap during history.

Honestly, it was the best subject, the Professors voice made a perfect white noise for Luffy to fall asleep to, the glares he received off Hermione were definitely worth it.

Besides, getting to sleep, period was always difficult for him, he remembered _everything_ about his pervious life, and apparently, history did as well.

Since finding the book at the Leaky Cauldron that was on the subject of his past life Luffy decided to do some more digging into the history that people had written down about him. To his utter surprise _Shanks_ had documented some of the crap that had gone down during the Great Pirate Era.

And most historians believed that it was all a load of crap, the guy was a pirate so obviously all of his works are biased. And most didn't believe in the destruction of Ohara simply because people _knew how to read._

But then again, it had happened before and if the government didn't want something to happen they either ensured it wouldn't occur through violence or bribery.

So most books Luffy read from the library were dissing Shanks accounts of the past, they said that no way something like that could ever happen. But a few agreed with the pirate, arguing that if wars with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named could happen then something on this grand scale could occur.

The crew were a little bit surprised about the amount of books Luffy was reading but then they themselves had started to read them and realised _why_ he read them. Despite the seriousness in which Shanks wrote he always had little inside jokes added to the mix.

Which is why as an addition to the intense work out regimes they completed, the Straw Hat pirates could be found curled into separate chairs or any available surface reading books on their history. Some of the reminders are too painful but when anything happens to a crew member the rest huddle around them and offer silent and sometimes not so silent support.

They all awake the following morning at different times, Zoro is up the earliest to begin more weight training and push his body to the limits. Sanji and Luffy were next, both off to the kitchens. And Usopp had gotten up about the same time as Luffy and Sanji, off to tinker with parts aboard the Merry – he was no Franky but he had looked after Merry first and knew more than the others.

They had all awoken to the smell of delicious treats being cooked for Halloween. As Luffy and Sanji crept down to the kitchens they drank in the sight of jack-o-lanterns, skeletons that seemed animated (none like Brook), various candles floating and black and orange streamers eternally floating over the halls.

They cooked once again (and ate) and Sanji got to experiment with exotic ingredients which had been imported for the sole use of Halloween.

As the real breakfast rolled around, all members were present, except for Zoro, he was currently lost and had found himself at the Astronomy Tower. "The Great Hall keeps moving dammit." He said to the empty air.

Ron and Hermione were once again huddled together muttering about one thing or another. "Hey Hermit, whatcha talkin' bout?" Luffy, as blunt as ever, asked.

Hermione immediately turned to him with an irritated expression "My name is _Hermione_ and we were just discussing-."

Ron grabbed her arm as she was about to finish. "We were just talking about our studying regime for exams." Smooth Hermione, real smooth, she thought to herself.

In reality, as soon as she had arrived at the hall Ron had pulled her aside and bombarded her with questions.

"Well? Did you find out anything?" Ron asked, hastily piling himself a true English breakfast.

"Yes, quite a bit actually." Hermione started. "For starters, Mugiwara no Kaizoku is Japanese for 'Straw Hat Pirates'."

"What!?" Ron shouted, everybody had heard about the Straw Hat Pirates, they had rivalled the world government more than once and had destroyed multiple islands, the only crew that would ever be better than them was the Roger Pirates, but even then, apparently the Straw Hat captain became the King Of The Pirates. A title only ever earned by Gol D. Roger.

"Yes, well, it doesn't really make much sense, they had a flag of the Straw Hats and Harry is even wearing a Straw Hat." Hermione commented, choosing her food at a much more sedate pace, her parents had taught her proper manners.

"You can't be serious." Ron said, jaw gaping at her with a lack of comprehension.

"I'm very, my guess is that they're really close friends and they're re-enacting the Straw Hat Pirate crew, after all, the captain was quite close to his members if Red Haired Shanks' diary is to go anything by." Hermione informed the red-head.

And they had continued throwing around possible theories as to _why on earth_ anyone would want to pretend to be a crew that had been executed at the end of the 16th century for various crimes, least of all for actually _being_ pirates.

That brought them to the present where Harry was asking Hermione of the topic of their discussion.

And Harry had walked in wearing the Straw Hat, a red band encircling the body of the hat.

She could see the burning desire to know the _real_ topic of discussion because there was no way in hell that he bought it. And judging by his friend's expression he knew that it was a steaming pile of crap, but they were too nice to call her out on it.

Instead, Harry elected to sit down and promptly stuff his face full of food, more than what was humanly possible. He had currently taken off his prized possession to stuff food into his face, that and the fact that owls were swooping in.

Draco was chewing on a toothpick as per usual, currently not eating. It was then that the three-wand guy Seamus plopped down next to Harry for no apparent reason. God these people were weird! Hermione thought to herself.

And then Neville of all people shoved himself in between Draco and Harry, and promptly pulled out a pile of scraps and began fiddling with them. "What are you doing?" Hermione questioned, curiosity getting the better of her.

"Oh me? I'm just making something for a friend." Usopp smiled to himself, no way in hell was he telling the bushy haired girl that he was actually making a high functioning weapon, also known as a clima tact.

"Is that for Nami-swan?" Draco cooed to his friend and Hermione swore she saw hearts appear in his eyes.

"Yes, jeez, now stop getting drool all over it." Usopp said grumpily, hovering over his masterpiece protectively.

"Shishishi!" Harry just laughed at the duo and Seamus looked at them with, dare she say it? Fondness?

Luffy was about to fit the hat in its familiar face when he froze. He was staring at the inside of the brim where something that looked like paper was sown on. That tiny little card meant _everything._ He had fallen oddly silent, well, silent enough while he wasn't eating food. Sanji, Zoro and Usopp looked over and they _understood._

There, Ace's Vivre card laid untouched amongst the years. The Straw Hats were prepared when he started crying and instead proceeded out of the hall, all huddled around their captain in a protective manner.

As soon as they exited the hall Luffy's tears began to fall quicker, nobody moved, all allowing their captain to live his moment of weakness. "Do you, do you know what this means guys?" Luffy said shakily, looking at the card like it was a lifeline. "It means that Ace, Ace is alive!" He shouted, tears still streaming freely down his face, incongruous to his sadness, a smile was stretched across his face.

The Straw Hats finally allowed themselves to smile, their captain, he had hope again. Hope to see a brother he had not been strong enough to save (it was _never,_ as long as they were present it would _never ever,_ be his fault).

"I made a promise to you Ace and Sabo, to be brothers, and as a brother I _will_ find you both." Luffy said with the utmost conviction laid in his voice.

A promise like that, it held _power._ So much that the crew members allowed it to wash over them. They hadn't questioned how their things had ended up in that strange room but, looking at their most prized possessions they knew for a fact that they were theirs.

Long after Luffy's tears had dried and breakfast had ended the Straw Hats parted ways to their classes, all promising to meet up for lunch and dinner.

Classes passed in the similar fashion that they always had, and everyone was buzzing with excitement for the Halloween feast, as older students had told them, it was simply spectacular.

So yes, at the end of the day everybody was very riled up about the feast, but first years were full of energy for their final period of the day (except for Astronomy was destined to be at midnight) which happened to be charms.

During every lesson of the day the teachers had asked Luffy politely (some not so politely) to take off his hat, every time he smiled and had gently refused, the only time he would take off his hat would be to eat meals when the post arrived, that was to ensure none of the dumb birds like Zoro Jr. got the wrong idea and attempted to use his hat as a perch.

Most of the teachers either demanded with the threat of the deduction of house points and others with detention. He still refused and suffered because of it. The only one who had not commented was Professor Binns.

And today during charms they would be continuing with the levitation charm. Luffy, Zoro and Sanji sat together once more and Zoro barely had to put a thought to using the levitation charm, and besides, the rate at which he swished the wand was more than likely enough to float the feather on its own.

Luffy was struggling a bit and so was Sanji, their wands had been built for duelling and not dying, not charms like Zoro's, well, one of them was, that one was from a dead sibling (ironic wasn't it?) who had been killed during the war with Voldemort. That particular one was made of Aspen, a beautiful white with a dragon core. Another was carved from Rowan with a core of unicorn and a red oak beauty with the core of a dragon.

Those three were his arsenal, and between them, they covered most of the spell casting through a multitude of skill on the behalf of the wands themselves.

They weren't his swords but they were pretty damn close, he had actually found his swords, the real ones. Back in that room that shitty cook found, Zoro had spied his beautiful swords up in the crow's nest, right now, they were resting in the sheets of his dormitory.

If anyone found them he was screwed.

Finally, _finally_ he was able to find his way to the hall without getting lost (how the hell did the Astronomy tower get there?). As he walked in there was a loud bang and something began to fall atop him, without hesitating Zoro whipped out his wands and shredded whatever was falling on him.

Shredded orange and black streamers fell around him and the hall ceased to breathe. "Silly Zoro!" Luffy shouted, the damned fool and instead made room for Zoro to sit at.

Quiet murmurs began about the boy who destroyed _confetti_ for God's sake, and what was Harry Potter doing? He even had a nickname for the Slytherin. Even Snape was giving him an odd look.

But Hermione just quickly pulled out a scrap piece of parchment and scrawled _Zoro? Is he a Straw Hat?_ And shoved it in her ever increasing pile of mysteries about Harry Potter and his friends.

Soon normal conversations began again and confetti was added to Fred and George's arsenal of prankster equipment.

"Hey Hermine, whatcha writing?" Luffy asked the girl through a mouthful of food, it was quite disgusting, little bits of pie flew out of the boys mouth.

"None of your business! And my name is _Hermione._ " Hermione replied haughtily.

"Naww, don't be like that Herminny." Luffy said, this time pieces of meat falling out onto the plate below the gaping maw known as his mouth.

"Hmm." Hermione stalked off, she didn't want to be around someone like that right now.

"Did I say somfin?" Luffy asked, chewing on a chicken wing.

He received a kick on the head for his troubles. "Don't treat a lady like that Luffy!"

Unfortunately for Sanji in kicking Luffy he had accidentally knocked some of Zoro's… His pumpkin juice, yeah pumpkin juice. No way was it the Sake he had found on Merry, of course not, Zoro is too young to be drinking.

"Hey shitty cook don't kick me!" Zoro yelled at Sanji.

"What did you call me you shitty moss-head?!" Sanji yelled right back, curly eyebrow twitching in annoyance.

Unfortunately for Luffy and Usopp, they were in the middle of the two morons when they decided to fight, resulting in a multitude of colourful bruises and eggs for the poor captain and Sogeking.

Thankfully, the two got up and decided to duke it out in between the Gryffindor house and Ravenclaw. As kicks and punches began to fly Professor Quirrell ran into the hall, startling all from their meals.

He was panting heavily and just made it to the head teachers table before collapsing. "Troll in the dungeons, thought you ought to know." And with those words he passed out in a dead faint.

Those little words brought chaos and terror to the hall, students screaming, others crying. But among the confusion Luffy laughed, "There's a troll?! I want to fight it, I wonder if it tastes any good." The crew just resigned themselves to a night of fighting a godamn troll.

Although, despite their resignation each one looked excited at the prospect of a new enemy, Zoro was fingering his wands with eager anticipation, Sanji was polishing his shoes and Usopp was checking that Kabuto was prepped for battle.

Dumbledore raised his wand and with a short wave all movement ceased to naught. "Prefects, lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately."

"Let's go now, we have to warn Hermione." Sanji said, always looking out for the ladies as his number one rule.

"Aw, but then we won't get to fight the troll." Luffy whined, frowning.

"We can look for it _after_ we get Hermione to safety." Usopp said, electing for the option that involved the least fighting.

"Okayy."

They made it out of the hall by ducking low with the Hufflepuffs who were going in the direction of the closest bathroom. As soon as they were free they sprinted towards the bathroom, it was then that they realised they were not alone.

Someone was following them. "Luffy quick!" Zoro said and Luffy hastily stretched his arms to encase everyone and pulled them to the ceiling.

The figure coming was none other than Severus Snape, he wasn't going in the direction of the troll but rather the direction of the Cerberus that Luffy had… _tamed._

They exchanged glances, "Sanji." Luffy said quietly.

Without another word, despite his insistence on saving the girl, Sanji made off after Snape. After all, this was a captain's order, and Sanji was the perfect candidate.

Zoro would get lost and Usopp would probably accidentally reveal himself.

Now the trio continued on towards the bathroom and then an absolutely foul stench assaulted their nostrils. "Usopp!" Luffy whined, waving his hand in front of his nose.

"It wasn't me moron!" Usopp slapped Luffy up the head.

Then the troll came into their sights. It was quite ugly, about 11 metres tall and with skin that looked to be made of rock. The only thing they could liken the sight to would be to that of Ore that they had unfortunately became very intimate with.

"So cool!" Stars were in Luffy's eyes as he drank in the sight of the troll, it swung its' bat menacingly.

Zoro pulled out the aspen wand and held it loosely at his side, he had complete faith in his captain but even so, it was comforting to have it in his hand.

Usopp was cowering behind the swordsmen, slingshot already out and ready to fire at their enemy. The troll finally noticed them, dull, beetle eyes gazing at them, it swung the bat to which Luffy jumped out of the way of.

It made a terrifyingly loud noise and left an indentation in the wall. "Now, gomu gomu no Gatling!" Luffy's fists were everywhere all at once, hitting the troll at the speed and force of a Gatling gun.

The troll staggered backwards, slamming its hand and club into opposing walls as to retain its balance. It dropped to its knees despite its efforts. "And, gomu gomu no bazooka!" Luffy's hands slammed into the troll, smashing it into one of the walls causing the entire castle to shake in terror.

Luffy landed on both feet with a light tap, he gently pushed his straw hat further onto his head. "Yeah, you go Luffy!" Usopp shouted, throwing a fist in the air as a sign of support, Zoro simply stood still, grinning manically, this was _fun._ The first 11 years of his life were spent training for a higher purpose that neither of his parents understood.

That reason was standing in front of him, because Zoro would follow his captain to the ends of the earth and then hell and everything in between. Hell, they had fought _God_ and come out on top.

The troll attempted to get back up. "Oh, so you want more?" Luffy asked rhetorically, winding his arm up behind him. "Okay, gomu gomu no rifle!" The troll smashed further into the wall, blood gushing out of its mouth and nose.

Its eyes were unfocused, and it collapsed, creating a noise akin to that of thunder. The poor troll never even stood a chance.

A girl rushed out of the bathrooms looking at the carnage and the Straw Hats. "Wha? How?" And Hermione Granger, for once in her life, was completely stumped. How were three first years able to take down a mountain troll? And how come it was so beaten up?

It was then that Zoro cursed loudly, causing Luffy to turn in confusion. Zoro merely tilted his head at the trio of teachers making their way towards the Straw Hats and Hermione. And behind the teachers was Sanji, he was waiting out of sight but Usopp had whispered to Zoro and Luffy that he had seen their friend in good condition.

Well, it was to be expected, after all, they had quite literally made the castle shake. McGonagall was leading the trio of Quirrell, Snape and herself. She was as pale as a white sheet of paper and her lips were pressed so tightly together that she could probably destroy a sword with them.

Quirrell took one look at the troll and hastily slid down one of the untouched walls with a small whimper. Snape wandered over to the troll, drinking in the various smashed walls caught in the crossfire. McGonagall looked at to the four of them and said with a voice bathed in cold fury. "What on earth were you _thinking?_ You could have been killed! Why were you not in your dormitories?"

"It was because they were looking for me."

"Miss Granger!"

"Yeah well, I think I said something mean to her at dinner so she went to the bathroom, and when the call came we realised that Hermine didn't know so we went to get her." Luffy quickly stalled any explanation Hermione or God forbid, _Usopp_ had concocted.

Professor looked scrutinisingly at them. "Then why were three of you required?" Snape asked. "And why are they all from different houses?"

"They were sitting with me, and they're my friends so of course they came." Luffy replied.

Yes, that much was true Snape admitted to himself. Apparently this boy, a mockery of wizards, just like his father, was quite charismatic. But the way the four behaved was almost as if they were family. And sometimes, he had noticed, they all got an unnatural faraway look in their eyes, one full of sadness eleven year olds should not be able to know.

The little episode this morning did not go unnoticed, what made the boy so sad? He needed to know so that he knew what to say to the stupid boy in the future. Even so, these boys were a close knit bunch and you'd have to be a fool to not _feel_ the awesome power that rolled off of them.

"Well, nobody was harmed, and those are legitimate reasons. But what did you _do_ to the troll?" McGonagall asked the question that was burning a hole to be answered.

Usopp immediately took over. "You see, I have some things called 'dials', now these dials can do all sorts of things, but this particular one is called an 'impact dial', basically, when the troll went to hit us I put the impact dial up and absorbed the hit, and then I used the energy from its hit right back at it." He explained, pulling out the impact dial as proof, he chose not to mention that whenever somebody used it that the recoil hurt like a bitch.

"I'll be confiscating that then." Snape sneered and went to take it from Usopp.

"No, it was given to me by a friend, one who happens to be long dead, this is all I have to remind me of them. You _can't_ take it away." Usopp said, thinking of Conis and her father Pagaya.

"Severus." McGonagall said in a warning tone that brooked no further argument. "Five points will be deducted each for your recklessness. But, ten points will be awarded each for your bravery."

And with that, McGonagall swept away, Snape and Quirrell close behind.

"Wooh, that was a close one, nice Usopp." Luffy commented.

"Mm, well, the impact dial is always handy." He replied, looking fondly at the dial.

They all turned back to the direction of their dormitories, completely forgetting Hermione. "Hey! I want answers!" She demanded, "I can't go on without knowing, why do you name yourselves after the Straw Hat pirates? Why do you have a jolly roger of the Straw Hats? And most importantly, _how can you stretch?"_

Her words brought silence. "Uhh?" Came Luffy's eloquent answer.

It was at that moment that Sanji hurtled down the hallway. "Phew, well done Luffy, you saved the girl. And Snape's clean."

"Uhm. Herminny, if you come back with me I'll explain everything, we can talk it over with Draco in the dormitory." Luffy said. "See you guys tomorrow!"

And they parted ways, Luffy was kind of dreading the oncoming conversation, was she going to believe him or not?


	7. Chapter 7

"I'm sorry but what?!" Hermione shrieked, she had listened patiently to what Luffy had to say but even so, she didn't believe it.

I mean, reincarnation? What the hell? And such a time leap from the 16th century to the 20th? Nothing made sense anymore.

Luffy, uncharacteristically quiet gave her a tight smile. "Yeah, we sailed the seas and went on all kinds of adventures. We don't have all of our crew but we're getting there, we just need our navigator, doctor, archaeologist, shipwright, musician and karate artist!" He said, counting all of them off with his fingers.

"This is not possible." Hermione said, hands shaking. "Where's Fred and George, surely they would have to be on such a prank like this."

Sanji sat back, observing the girl carefully, her eyes were wide open, hands shaking and she was pale. It was becoming apparent that she was going to go into shock if Luffy dropped anything more on her.

It was still possible to back out of this, Sanji could just say it was a fantasy _Harry_ had come up with to entertain the days away. But that would be lying and Sanji just couldn't do that, it wasn't because she was a lady, but because that would be saying that everything they had ever done was a fantasy.

And never, _never_ would he ever do that, to himself or the crew. "Oh yeah, and I was King of the Pirates too." Luffy smiled widely at that.

Well, there goes hoping that he didn't drop anymore bombshells on her. "No, Luffy D. Monkey was the king of the pirates. He gained everything the world had to offer, including the legendary One Piece, the treasure left behind by Roger D. Gol, the first King of the Pirates." She recounted.

"Shishishi, you said our names wrong." Luffy was delighted by that fact and laughed outright, even Sanji chuckled a little.

"What? They're not your names, they're the names of pirates that lived a long time ago." Hermione said. "But what do you do with your skin? How do you make it stretch?"

She had dismissed their explanation but that was okay, one day she would understand. But until then they would humour her questions.

"I said before, with the gomu gomu no mi." Luffy explained.

"What does that even mean?" She asked, not understanding the traditional naming.

"It means rubber fruit, I'm now a rubber man! See?" He stretched his face to abnormal lengths, terrifying the poor eleven-year-old who promptly passed out.

"Was it too much?" Luffy turned to Sanji, face still stretched to a stupid expression.

Sanji just sighed, "Come on, help me get her to Madame Pomfrey." He pulled out his wand and muttered the levitation charm.

This body still was not suited to any sort of real strength, which would change with the intensity that would occur with their training.

Luffy followed afterwards, pulling out his sycamore wand and adding power to the levitation charm. "So, she doesn't believe us." Luffy commented.

"Well, I probably wouldn't either in this day and age." Sanji replied.

"It's a shame, she's so smart."

They arrived at the door of their local doctor, Luffy took point and pushed in the doors, admitting them into the moon lit room of the nursing bay. "What are you doing here so late? And what happened?" Madame Pomfrey raced out of her adjoined room, swathed in her nightgown and cap.

She bustled around, negating their spells and electing to cast her own, guiding Hermione over to one of the beds, she cast a diagnostic spell. "Hmm it seems she got quite the shock, she seems to have passed out from this. I'll be keeping her here for the night." Her mumblings were incessant and seemed to be purely to herself. "But what in the world happened to shock her like this?"

"I don't know, we found her like this." Sanji said quickly before Luffy could say anything, he didn't want Pomfrey knowing about his unusual anatomy, there was no doubt that he would end up in Mungo's, being tested for his weird power.

Thankfully, Luffy caught onto the chef's train of thought and nodded along with his explanation. It seemed plausible enough, and the only snag was somehow coercing Hermione into accepting the explanation.

Madam Pomfrey tittered and continued bustling around the still girl. "Of you two go, visiting hours are over."

Luffy opened his mouth to protest but Sanji held up his hand to forestall any complaints Luffy may have. "That's fine, we'll be off now."

Luffy's mouth shut with an audible 'snap!' He walked numbly out of the room. "She doesn't believe us." His voice was a lot softer now that it was just them.

Sanji said nothing, simply lighting a cigarette, inhale, and exhale. They walked in silence to the mystery room, luckily, they did not happen across any teachers.

Finally, after fifteen minutes of silent walking they reached the mystery room, it was already in use apparently, if the predetermined place was anything to go by.

Inside were the entirety of the crew (which really was only a fifth), Usopp was setting up his sights onto boards and Zoro was lifting weights that were incongruous to his size. Sanji wordlessly went to the kitchens to prepare meat for his captain. (And maybe hot chocolate for the others but that was him to know and the others to find out).

Luffy set himself near Zoro and Usopp. Currently, in the mystery room, it was night time, with thousands upon thousands of stars shining down on them and the moon to smile in its' crescent shape, all were painted atop an inky black sky that glowed from the light the stars and moon reflected.

Luffy lent back onto a nearby palm tree and gazed at the constellations, the stars glittered back down at him, different from those that dotted the current sky that laid outside the bounds of the mystery room.

Everything that had happened was eventually catching up with him, it was great and all that he had his crew back but it wasn't _all_ of them and even if he had his entire crew he would never see Sabo nor Ace again (at least not in their true flesh), they were long gone – lost to the void of darkness that had once consumed the rest of the Mugiwara no Kaizoku.

And even if Luffy never vocalised his concerns they were always apparent to those who were closest to him – he was afraid of losing them or never meeting the rest of the crew.

And he also knew that it was his fault that his crew had perished back in the 16th century. Not that any of them blamed him, they all had known the risk and still accepted. But even so Luffy still blamed himself for their deaths.

"Here you go shitty captain." Sanji placed a plate of meat in front of his captain, accompanied by a hot chocolate, marshmallows floating atop the brown liquid and all.

Luffy stuffed his mouth full of the delectable treat, bones and all. He did not choke, most likely due to his rubber devil fruit powers accommodating to his every need.

They continued the entire night like that until eventually, they were laid out near each other, fast asleep due to exhaustion from their night-time activities and other various factors.

They awoke the following morning to the smell of delicious food being cooked, Sanji had obviously neglected to wake Luffy this morning seeing as they were all together either way.

Luffy awoke with his usual gusto, jumping up and stretching, cracking all of his rubber joints. He jumped up onto the Merry, ready for the breakfast that Sanji had undoubtedly already prepared.

Usopp was the next to wake, he yawned widely, ensuring that all of his gear was safely strapped to his side before following the Straw Hat captain to the kitchen that also served their purposes as a dining room.

Zoro followed at a much more sedate pace, yawning hard enough that tears gathered in his eyes as he did. His three swords were strapped onto his right side.

Before them was enough to feed thirty people comfortable, but with the monster trio present it was just enough to feed the four of them. Zoro and Sanji were both sipping coffee whilst Luffy and Usopp sipped tea.

"Let's go back to our dorms to get the rest of the stuff we need for school." Sanji said, biting down on his cigarette as to not allow it to fall out as he spoke.

"Sure." Luffy leapt from his place next to Zoro, stomach distended from the amount of food he had consumed.

When Hermione had exited the medical bay she had promptly began to avoid them, she went out of her way to ensure that they were never in the common room at the same time. Whenever they were at the library reading up on their adventures from Shanks' perspective Hermione stuffed all of her books away and raced out of the library.

Luffy attempted to talk to her when she was cornered after her latest attempt at avoiding them. "Hey Hermione."

"What do you want?" She asked sharply, turning away from her studies.

"I just wanted to talk to you about the other day." He continued.

"It's okay, I get it. You guys just pretend to be pirates because you guys are really good friends." Hermione burst out.

She had mulled over the events and scenarios and that was the only one that made sense, but she didn't want to offend them so she had avoided them, but finally, Harry had cornered her and had looked all dark and intimidating, obviously, he was not going to allow her to escape as he had the other times.

She looked at his expression, one of, was that sadness? Well, it surely was contemplating. Eventually he brightened their area with his one hundred Watt smile. "Yeah."

And just like that they were once again on speaking terms and dare she say it? Friends.

Luffy was immensely sad that he had to lie about his nakama but he surmised that it was for the best, having someone know who was not from their era could become problematic, despite the fact that he originally wanted Hermione to know (he still did), he had to put what was in the best interests of the crew first.

The Straw Hats ventured their way through the classes and continuing on with their training, Luffy had gotten so excited the other day due to the fact that he had caused an entire school of fish to simply turn tail and swim away.

It was the first Haki any of them had rediscovered.

They continued their training all through summer and autumn, school passed as it had always done, boringly.

At one stage Snape had developed a limp that to no one he breathed a word of how he developed such a terrible injury. Usopp informed them that Snape had frequently been visiting the room that held the Cerberus.

It was a startling revelation to say the least. Was it Snape that was after the mystery package after all? It couldn't be, he didn't give off an aura of evil like the guy in the forest did.

But finally, they entered November the ground began to slowly freeze over, turning all of the blades of grass into literal blades. The sky was a constant grey, one that looked like flint. And the great lake gradually froze over, trapping the majority of the aquatic magical people.

And with this horrible weather came the beginnings of Quidditch season, training became much more intense and fervent with Wood desperately training them all up to defeat Slytherin in the first game Luffy would play.

Nobody had actually seen Luffy training because Wood had insisted, he said that Luffy was his secret weapon and that no one would know his moves.

"Ugh, you guys are coming on Saturday to watch right?" Luffy asked as he stuffed his face full of Sanji's cooking, they had decided to permanently take up residence in the mystery room.

Of course the majority of their things remained in their dorms.

But every night they were either training or exploring the gigantic tower. There was a lot of space to document, but there was no Nami to write down everything. Zoro always ended up at the Astronomy tower regardless of where he was headed.

"Yeah of course, we gotta see Slytherin lose." Sanji said, grinning at Zoro.

"Shut up!" Zoro shouted, immediately doing battle with the blonde haired cook.

Usopp immediately jumped away from the strikes of sword and feet.

"Shishishi." Luffy stole their food while they were busy exchanging blows.

Luffy reflected on the day he had found the mystery mirror in an abandoned class room.

He was strolling through the hallways, intent on finding any hidden passage ways and all of the mystery rooms. He had happened across a classroom where the only occupants were spiders and a weird looking mirror.

"Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi." Luffy read off of the plaque engraved onto the top of the mirror. "What the hell does that mean?"

If question marks could emit from the boy they would be currently hanging above his head in confusion.

Luffy instead focused on the mirror, and promptly flinched away. There, reflected on the shiny surface was _Luffy_ atop the Thousand Sunny with his nakama. And not just his crew, Ace and Sabo were there, right _there._

And yet, as he stared at the empty space next to him he realised that it must be nothing more than a magic trick.

"Hey guys." He said shakily, sitting down cross-legged, Ace and Sabo followed him and so did the Mugiwara no Kaizoku, Shanks, Makino, _Law._

They all followed him, looking not a day older than the last time he had seen them.

He did not know how long he sat there, just talking to the reflections of his friends, all about what had occurred in his new life. They never said anything, just smiled widely at him and nodded along as he spoke anecdotes of everything.

And that was how he ended up sleeping, snoozing gently while his friends and brothers watched on, constantly smiling sadly at the small boy.

There was a little pool beneath Luffy that had started to dry, it was salty, the faces looked onward with sad smiles.

"Hey Luffy!" Usopp snapped his fingers in front of his captain's uncharacteristically blank face.

"Hmm? Yeah?" He snapped out of his reverie and turned to his chef.

"I said, we have to leave now, otherwise we're going to be late for class."

Zoro and Usopp raised unimpressed eyebrows at their captain's behaviour, (they would not admit that they were concerned, that would be absurd).

Saturday dawned as all other November days had begun, freezing cold and pitch black. But, Luffy was up with Sanji eating much more than usual as he was to be playing Quidditch today against the Slytherin team.

"Mm, this is delicious Sanji!" He exclaimed whilst stuffing a drumstick into his mouth, ripping the delectable meat apart with a vigour none could understand.

Sanji simply smiled, chewing on a toothpick he had stolen from the elves, he never admitted it but it always pleased him immensely when somebody complimented his cooking. "Nothing but the best before your game, I want to see Zoro's face when he realises that Slytherin lost to your team."

"Shishishi. Let's go now!" He shouted, grabbing the broomstick that had literally been dropped into his lap by owls, it had been a special exception made by Professor McGonagall.

Sanji followed his captain to the Great Hall, where his captain sat himself down and started pigging out on more food. It was second grade to Sanji's cooking but it was still food.

"Good luck out there today Luffy!" Usopp shouted out from the Hufflepuff table, he stuck up his thumbs and smiled.

"Thanks Usopp!" Luffy shouted back, smiling back at his friend.

It was impressive that nobody even batted an eye at their antics which showed just how long the Straw Hats had been at Hogwarts.

Hermione sidled into next to the boy, intent on avoiding debris from Luffy's meal. "Good luck today Harry." She smiled warmly to him while placing food on her plate.

"Thanks Hermit!" Luffy replied, smiling at her brightly.

"No problem, now, you should probably leave, the twins are leaving too." She smiled at the boy who jumped up, only _just_ remembering to grab his Nimbus 2000.

By eleven o'clock the entirety of the school was packed tightly into the Quidditch field, all with binoculars. Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, Hermione and Ron had chiselled a spot out for them, nice and high up as to get a good view of Luffy.

Although, Zoro was currently snoozing and Sanji fantasising over some of the older girls, just that they were cute (it would be creepy any other way). Usopp was excitedly talking with Ron about the true game, his glasses that acted as binoculars were firmly secured to his head.

Hermione was reading "Quidditch Through The Ages" one last time and Dean had joined them to join Ron and Usopp's conversation.

"There, all done!" Usopp exclaimed, he held up a flag, it said _"Luffy for president!"_ and beneath it were two symbols, one was the Mugiwara Kaizoku Jolly Roger and, beside it was a lion to represent Gryffindor.

He had been drawing the flag as they talked together, Dean looked impressed by the painting. "I didn't realise that you could draw, Neville." He commented. "I can too, nothing as good as that, however."

"Of course, I am the best there is!" Usopp exclaimed, pointing the paintbrush at himself importantly.

Zoro hit Usopp over the head with a sheathed sword without even waking up. "Shitty cook." He mumbled, snoring loudly.

The rest of company looked at the sword in awe. "Is that… Is that a real sword?" Dean asked in a hushed tone.

"No, of course not, moss-head just carries fakes around, the blades have been blunted." Sanji said, chewing on his toothpick.

"That's a little weird, why does he carry it around?" Ron asked, frowning at the sleeping boy.

"Because it was given to him by a friend a long time ago." Usopp beat Sanji to the explanation, Usopp smiled fondly at the sleeping swordsman, they had all come so far.

Meanwhile, Luffy was getting changed speedily into the Quidditch uniform which was scarlet. (Ace would have loved the uniform, Sabo would have preferred the Ravenclaw uniform).

Wood cleared his throat for the team to be quiet. "Okay men."

"And women." The chaser Angelina Johnson said.

"And women." He agreed. "This is it."

Fred and George mimed the speech, word for word. "The big one." Fred said.

"The one we've all been waiting for." Continued George.

"We were here last year so we know Wood's speech by heart."

"Shut it you two." Wood said. "This is the best team Gryffindor's had in years. We're going to win. I know it."

He glared at them all as if to say, "Or else."

"Right. It's time. Good luck, all of you."

They all filtered out of the change room to the roaring stadium, Madam Hooch stood in the middle. "Now I want a nice fair game, all of you."

Peculiarly enough her hawk-like eyes focused on the Slytherin captain, Marcus Flint. The boy had quite a disfigured face, "Are you related to trolls?" Luffy asked him, tilting his head in confusion.

In response the boy growled at him. "You better watch yourself Potter." He said, spittle flying out of his mouth, landing on the green grass below them.

Luffy looked at him confusedly. "I was just asking." He muttered under his breath.

"Mount your brooms please." Madam Hooch stuck a silver whistle in her mouth, she blew hard and fifteen brooms rose, higher and higher they went until the ground was a blur beneath them.

Luffy noticed a big banner that read _"Luffy for President"_ and smiled, his friends were great. He could barely hear the commentary but the bits and pieces he did hear were very biased towards the Gryffindor team, that and the fact that little titbits and swooning over girls were added in there showed that the commentator was obviously from Gryffindor.

Luffy sat cross-legged on his broom, higher up than anyone else, he was looking intently down, watching and waiting for his prey to finally make a move.

Suddenly, a blur of brown flew at Luffy, he looked at it with intrigue. "Huh."

"And there's a bludger hurtling towards Harry Potter who is seeming nonchalant and… there's a nice beating to that bludger. Who in their right mind would send a bludger at a seeker?" Luffy caught the tail end of the commentary provided by the biased boy.

He had been busy preparing himself to punch away the offending bludger. But at the last second one of the twins had raced up and hit it towards one of the Slytherin players. "All right there Harry?!" They shouted at him, and without waiting for a response they flew back into the game.

Then there was a sudden uproar, Angelina Spinnet had scored causing all of Gryffindor to cheer and Slytherin to boo and groan. Luffy had laughed, he still didn't really know the rules but he knew the basics.

And there! A golden glint in the sunlight, the snitch had been spotted! Jordan told the crowds this and everybody stood as one to get a better look.

"Shishishi!" Luffy dived down towards the speck of gold that was the snitch, he had one hand atop his head to ensure his precious Straw Hat would not become lost.

The Slytherin seeker had also seen it and had dropped down to dive for it, much like Luffy was now. But, Luffy's skill and the fact that he was on a faster broom allowed him to start pulling in front of the seeker.

The snitch was tantalisingly close when suddenly. WHAM! Marcus Flint casually pulled in front of Luffy who immediately pulled up, narrowly avoiding falling off his broom. "Hey! What was that for?!" He shouted at the boy.

"What?" Marcus asked smugly, smiling with a mouth full of crooked teeth.

"FOUL!" The entirety of Gryffindor screamed at the move, all stomping and looking quite angry.

Madam Hooch talked to Marcus angrily and eventually Gryffindor were awarded a free shot, but, naturally, in all the confusion the snitch had disappeared from sight.

Luffy sighed. "Oh man, I could've won then." He griped.

He spied Hagrid's bulky frame next to his friends. But he continued to look for the golden snitch, he needed to allow their team to win, he couldn't let down his new friends.

Luffy dodged another bludger lithely when it happened. His broom lurched, it tried its hardest to throw him off and to plummet down to the grass below. "What the?" He tried to regain control of the broom but by that stage the broom was performing all sorts of moves.

Zig-zagging across the sky, dipping down then up in rapid movements. Diving down for longer periods of time whilst shaking uncontrollably.

None of the audience seemed to have noticed Luffy's broom stick, none than the Straw Hats that is. It was like they had an inbuilt Luffy-sensor. (And Ace was supposed to be the one with a big brother complex).

"Hey Usopp, what's Luffy doing?" Zoro asked, pulling an eye open, he had been alerted by his Luffy radar going off.

Usopp pulled down his goggles and peered at the speck that was Luffy. "I don't know, he's moving uncontrollably, almost like he's lost control, but that's impossible." He muttered the last part to himself, in this world, the reality was that nothing was impossible.

And then people started to notice Luffy doing his odd movements. They all took turns gawking at the poor boy, Luffy was hanging onto the broom by a singular arm.

"Stop moving dammit!" He shouted at the broom, why was this happening?

People were gasping at his predicament, Luffy paid them no heed, instead, he focused on swinging his body over the slender body, he had lived the majority of his life on a ship, if he couldn't handle a little shaking then what kind of pirate was he?

He gritted his teeth, _hard_. This stupid broom was making everything so much harder. "Is there any way that Flint could have done something when he blocked Harry?" Dean asked Hermione.

It was Hagrid who answered. "Can't have, can't nothing interfere with a broom like that, only someone with Dark Magic. Ain't no kid can do that to a Nimbus 2000."

The Straw Hats exchanged glances, naturally Luffy was a magnet for anything remotely strange or unnatural. They were also planning the nine kinds of hell they would release on whoever was responsible for the attempted murder of their captain.

Well, a fall like that certainly wouldn't kill Luffy, he was a rubber man after all. But whomever was controlling the broom like that could not know that, they were obviously attempting a serious offence.

"Look for anyone chanting, they also have to maintain eye contact with Harry, then we'll know who is doing it." Hermione said quickly.

Usopp scanned the crowd. "There's two people chanting." He said, zeroing in on their faces. "Snape and Quirrell."

By now Flint had taken possession of the quaffle and had scored five times, no-one noticed, most were gathering beneath the bucking broom in the hopes of catching the boy if he were to fall.

"One is obviously using a counter spell but the question is who?" Hermione muttered. "We'll have to distract both of them to be sure."

"Don't worry guys, I've got this." Usopp said, pulling out Kabuto from the confines of his bag, he lined up two shots, non-lethal, of course, and fired. "Egg star!"

Both of the egg shots splattered over the teachers clothing causing both to cancel whatever jinx or hex they were performing on the broom. And with their distraction came the control of Luffy's broom.

The audience breathed out a sigh of relief. Then Luffy dived down, one hand over his mouth and the other on his precious straw hat, he looked like he was about to retch.

He landed with a loud thump onto the ground on all fours and coughed up something gold. "I did it!" He shouted. "I caught the sitch!"

Everyone sweat-dropped at the obvious misuse of the name but as soon as he yelled the entire stadium erupted into cheers of victory. (Sans Slytherin). Marcus Flint was disputing the result twenty minutes later, but it made no difference, Gryffindor had won one hundred and seventy points to sixty.

Luffy was still smiling at the crowds widely, he still was smiling half hour later when he was sitting in Hagrid's hut sipping black tea with Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Ron and Hermione, Dean had left upon the realisation that Hagrid was more _their_ friend.

Despite that Luffy had extended an invitation to him, one that was rejected.

"It was either Snape or Quirrell." Usopp explained to Luffy who was currently munching on one of Hagrid's rock cakes.

"Rubbish." Hagrid interjected.

"Yeah, Snape's innocent." Luffy stated determinedly.

"But-"

"Snape is innocent." He repeated twice as firmly.

"What about Quirrell then?" Sanji asked, almost crying over the tragedy that were rock cakes, he'd never say that however, and would never waste food.

"I don't know." Luffy sipped more tea. "But he gives me the creeps. I don't like him."

Zoro simply agreed silently with his captain, there was something _off_ with the turban wearing professor. And whilst Snape obviously held a grudge towards Luffy for some unknown reason, Zoro doubted that grudge was enough to warrant Luffy's death.

Usopp had his doubts but understood that Luffy's instinct was usually right. And he knew what he saw, _one_ of the adults had to have been the one causing Luffy's broom to behave as unusually as it did.

Sanji knew that their Potions teacher was a shady guy, he knew because Snape always visited their house and almost everyone who visited the Malfoy manor were either super rich or just pure evil. There was no in between. But he still couldn't shake the feeling that they were missing something major.

"Well, we know he visited the Cerberus guarding the package on the third floor." Sanji commented.

Hagrid dropped the tea pot. "How do you lot know about Fluffy?"

"Ooh, so that's what the name of the doggy is." Luffy laughed. "I like that doggy, we played together a lot."

The Straw Hats sweat dropped. _If by played you mean beat into submission._ Zoro thought, thinking back to the other Cerberus they had encountered. Turns out that that Cerberus was a. actually just made by a crazy scientist and b. had a fox head as well.

"You played with 'im?" Hagrid asked incredulously.

"Yeah, of course! He's great, is he yours?" Luffy asked.

"Yeah, I got him a year back from a Greek chappie I met a' the bar, I lent 'im to Dumbledore to protect-" Suddenly, Hagrid cut off, he realised he had said too much.

"What is in that mystery package anyway?"

"Nuffin' that's between Dumbledore and Nicolas Flammel-"

"Aha, so this Flammel dude knows what it is?"

"I should not 'ave said tha'." Hagrid said miserably.

"I've read up all about jinxes and I know that you have to maintain eye contact for it to work, that means that either one of two teachers attempted to kill Harry." Hermione tried.

"And I'm tellin' ya, you saw wrong! Neither would try and kill a student, Dumbledore handpicked the both of 'em and I trust his judgement." Hagrid replied, winding down from a rampage of defending the head master.

They left Hagrid's hut with solid leads to follow, Hermione rushed off to the library to research Nicolas Flamel and Ron said he had to speak to Hermione about something.

The pair raced off to the library.

"Shishishi. I can't wait to play with Fuffy again." Luffy exclaimed, imagining all of the things he could train the Cerberus.

"Uh, I'm sure it can't wait to play with you too." Sanji said sarcastically, mentally he was marrying Nami and being all adorable with her.

"Hey Luffy, why don't you think Snape is the culprit?" Usopp asked his friend.

"Because I would be able to tell." He said simply.

They arrived at their mystery room and waited until its' heavy doors yielded to reveal their hard won place of peace and training.

Christmas was coming faster than anyone had anticipated, the lake was frozen solid instead of simply having a thin surface layer. They awoke one morning to a most gorgeous sight, Hogwarts had been buried under several feet of snow.

The Weasley twins, usually accompanied by Peeves constantly bewitched snowballs to throw themselves kamikaze style at Quirrell, well, in Peeves case he simply followed the teacher and summoned ghostly balls that simply phased through the professor.

It was still unnerving for Quirrell to suddenly see several projectiles protrude from various parts of his body, and as a result he was much more skittish in class.

Their training never ceased and it was always a strange sensation to walk out of the mystery room from the tropical climate to one that was freezing. It always took Luffy a few more seconds to realise how cold it was, however.

Most of their classes were moderately warm as the teachers had roaring fires in their hearths, the only teachers who did not were Binns, who did not feel the cold thus had not point in stoking a fire. And Snape who most likely enjoyed the looks of displeasure upon their faces. Hermione had pointed out that Snape could very well be charming himself to stay warm in the cold dungeon.

That made them hate him just a little bit more. And Marcus Flint was being particularly rude to Luffy whenever he saw him in the halls, probably due to the troll remark in the Quidditch match.

Luffy simply ignored the Slytherin Quidditch player, some battles just weren't worth fighting.

Professor McGonagall had come around to all of them to ask whether they would be staying for the break. Luffy had immediately written his name down but to his dismay no-one else would be, well, he would have Ron but apart from the red-haired fellow he was alone.

Sanji was going back because it had been the only condition that would stop him being shipped off to Drumstrang, Usopp wanted to check up on his grandmother and Zoro wished to see the other family he had carved out back at his house.

When they left the Dungeons they discovered their path was blocked by a giant tree. "Hey Hagrid, would you like any help?" Ron asked, sticking his head through the branches.

Before Hagrid could reply Luffy, Zoro and Sanji had all picked up the tree. "It's not that heavy." Zoro said, throwing it up a couple of times to test his strength.

"Hey stop that shitty swordsman!" Sanji shouted irritably.

"What did you call me?!" And they were back at it again with their fighting leaving Luffy and Hagrid to hold up the tree.

"Shishishi, they sure are funny." Luffy laughed from his place, knees standing straight, oblivious to the shocked looks he was receiving, how could anyone pick up something like that when they were _eleven?_

Snape glided down the stairs like a bat from hell. "Seamus, Draco. No fighting in the hallways." That was all he said before the grease ball walked away.

"Come on then Harry, let's get this ta the hall." Hagrid said, beckoning the group.

So follow they did, Zoro and Sanji eventually joined in on the carrying, allowing them to all have a balanced weight on their shoulders.

McGonagall approached them and started preaching about using students to help with such heavy lifting. Luffy tuned it out, the training regime he had gone through with his Gramps and Rayleigh made his new life seem like paradise. "Put it in that corner." She sighed, probably realising how likely Luffy was to absorb any of her warnings.

The hall was dressed to the teeth, much like it had been at Halloween, only much more Christmasy. Holly and mistletoe hung from the walls in wreaths, and no less than twelve Christmas trees were strategically placed around the room, most glittered from the ice that had collected on their leaves and others had candles floating amongst the foliage.

Their days were numbered before the break and on the final day Luffy hugged his crewmates and Hermione in turn. "You guys better write to me." He said.

He hoped that this Christmas was okay, he had celebrated Christmases with his crew, but that was _before._ It would be his first Christmas in this world that he was actually _celebrating._ With the Dursleys he would be forced to clean whilst Vernon, Petunia and Dudley enjoyed the day with each other.

One thing that Luffy was definitely going to miss was Sanji's cooking, sure the house elves were brilliant but it just wasn't up to par with his chefs cooking. After all, Sanji had worked on the Baratie and on another anonymous ship before it had become wrecked.

Hermione promised that she would continue to research on Flamel if they (Ron and Luffy) continued to. And she made Luffy promise not to play with Fluffy.

"But it's so boring around here." Luffy whined.

"Hey, Luffy, make sure you keep some of the dog for me when I get back." Zoro had grinned, a grin that sent shivers down the spines of any who were relatively close to the swordsman.

Sanji smiled and Usopp shook his head fondly. "Just stay out of trouble without us okay? We don't want you to have all the fun without us." Sanji said and with one final wave they were out of sight.

And just like that, everything became lonelier. Well, he distracted himself by exploring the castle and studying the range of books the library had with Ron to discover more about this Nicolas Flamel. He also threw himself into training, determined to become stronger.

 _Yeah, that was a lot more angsty, primarily bc THAT ONE SABAODY ARC EP WHERE LUFFY WAS CRYING ABOUT NOT BEING STRONG ENOUGH AFTER KUMA SENT HIS CREW AWAY. ARGHH, my heart felt like it was being crushed. Anyways, thoughts?_


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N, so i cried myself to sleep when i watched Ace's death and cried harder after watching the Gray Terminal tiny arc. I'm now at the ep where we come back after the 2 years. ARGH, the angst kills me! Also, guest (29/11/16), if my friend translated your message correctly then don't worry I'm not abandoning you! I intend to_ at the bare minimum _write until year 4. Anyways, enjoy!_

Luffy plonked down onto his bed, almost everyone sans Ron, Luffy and Dean had left. Luffy for the most part simply spent his extra time exploring the castle, he had discovered several secret passageways, one was blocked off, another behind a three eyed statue. And one even went all the way out of school.

He had opened the door to what seemed to be a storage room for some sort of food store, Luffy had stuffed several of the treats into his pockets and retreated back to the castle before anyone could discover his presence.

He had also shared every secret room with his two current room-mates, Dean had confessed that he was a little lonely hanging out with Hufflepuffs.

That caused Luffy and Ron to exchange guilt ridden glances, they knew that the majority of their group had neglected the boy because they simply had more things in common with the others.

Ron started to try and teach Luffy to play wizard chess, the first time it had been a disaster as Luffy had little patience to sit around and play such an idle game. That was before he had seen the pieces attack each other.

When that happened stars immediately appeared in his eyes "So cool!" he had shouted. After that Ron found himself losing to the raven haired boy much more frequently than he won them.

Luffy was surprisingly adept at the game, he was quite a strategist when it came to doing battle, that and the fact that he smashed all of Ron's pieces because it was _so cool_ to see the pieces beat one another up.

But truth be told Luffy was getting bored of playing such a game, sure it had been pretty awesome in the beginning but now it was just repetitive, he usually beat Ron and Dean and had even beaten the pair when they teamed up to defeat the boy.

So most days he was either in the library or mystery room training harder and harder, he even had gone into the forest in a few instances. There he had found acromantula that were sentient beings, it had been difficult to defeat them all with Haki but eventually all of the spiders were unconscious and their leader a bloody pulp.

Apparently these acromantula were friends of Hagrid because one of the days he had raced into the hall with tears streaming down his face, he had whispered something to Dumbledore who had looked sharply up at the gamekeeper.

Unfortunately, none of the students in the near vicinity were able to hear what transpired between the duo, not even those who were very close to them. Dumbledore and Hagrid both left the hall, neither talking.

"Huh, that's weird." Luffy said, taking a bite out of the bacon he was chewing. "I wonder why they looked so serious."

Ron and Dean exchanged glances, communicating silently between themselves. "Where do you disappear to Harry?" Ron finally asked.

"I explore, and sometimes I even go to that forest thing." He said, smiling broadly.

"The Forbidden forest!?" Dean exclaimed.

"Yeah, that one, it's full of cool creatures, did you know that there's even giant spiders?" He asked excitedly.

At the mention of spiders Ron blanched and visibly turned pale. "Did you say spiders?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah, why?"

"I hate spiders." Ron said in disgust.

After that little episode they went to the library once more, there was an entire section Luffy had not visited yet, apparently it was _restricted._ But restricted basically meant that Luffy _had_ to go in the section, there were no restrictions for him, he was _free._

So after everyone had fallen asleep Luffy snuck out of their dormitory to the library, he looked at the chain inhibiting his process and wished that he had learnt how to pick locks. But then he remembered Sanji's incantation when he had opened the door for the forbidden third floor.

"Alohamora!" He pointed his wand at the chains and was satisfied to hear it click open, making sure that the chains did not hit the floor Luffy placed them down and snuck into the restricted section.

His curious eyes swept past many titles that did not appeal to him, most were history books and none on Nicolas Flamel. Eventually, his curiosity got the best of him when he noticed an incredibly old and familiar book.

It was old, incredibly old, one that had once sat atop a pedestal in Nami's room aboard the Thousand Sunny. He smiled happily at it, finally, something that _his_ crew had written. Its' pages were yellowed and taut with age, the ink fading along with the papyrus pages, but it was still _home._

He pulled it off the shelf and whispered Lumos to his wand, immediately it brightened to a blinding level. He opened the pages carefully, it was all written in Japanese but that was okay, he still remembered how to read it.

He flicked through the pages laughing at the moments that always made him smile and at other sections felt the familiar anger course through his veins at others. Nami's writing had become shaky at the section on Arlong but soon the kanjis once again became solid.

He didn't really get very far in his readings before he remembered why he actually came to the library for, he was just past Arlong.

"Oops, I wasted too much time." Luffy admonished himself, he placed the book back in its rightful place, memorising its location so he could come back for it.

"Nicolas Flamel, Nicolas Flamel, where are you?" He muttered to himself, searching the spines, it was then that he heard a shuffling noise.

"Where are they Mrs Norris?" Filch's old croak resonated through the library.

"Better get out of here." Luffy muttered before stretching up to the top of the bookshelf, it was quite tall so he should be shielded from view.

Idly he wondered how Filch found out his location and then decided he didn't want to know, the man didn't exude a magical aura so he probably found him through mundane uses.

He leapt to the next bookshelf, sandals slapping against the wood, he continued on this way until there were no more bookshelves to use as makeshift footholds.

At this point he landed on the cold unforgiving stone floor with a loud slap, he looked up to meet the wide yellow eyes of a particular cat that he wanted to avoid. "Uh, hi there kitty." He said, hoping that the cat would be quiet.

Suddenly it yowled for its' master to come quickly. "Crap!"

Luffy sprinted out of the library before the caretaker could make it out of the labyrinth of shelves, his sandals slapped against the stones. "Now, gomu gumo no, rocket!" He grabbed one of the support beams and swung up to the ceiling, crouching low on the beam, watching the cat and its' less than pleasant master pass.

Filch was hobbling along with the cat following him. "Where did they go Ms Morris?" The cat halted its' advance and looked to where Luffy was hiding, Luffy shooed it with his hands.

"No kitty cat!" He whispered harshly, he looked the cat in the eyes and _forced_ it away, he beat it back in a fight of wits.

Ms Norris flinched away from the boy, turned tail and ran, far away from Luffy, leaving Filch in the dust, Filch hurried after his pet, mistakenly thinking that she had found the student.

Luffy dropped from the ceiling, "Phew, that's been too close." He muttered.

Some of the portraits were beginning to awaken from their slumber in their frames. "What on earth are you doing?" An old man wearing navy blue robes inquired sleepily.

"Just running from Flick and his cat!" Luffy laughed, readjusting the hat over his head.

"Flick? I do not know anyone who goes by that name but I wish you to keep it down, some of us are trying to sleep." The portrait huffed at him.

"Shishishi." Luffy smiled widely at the portraits and raced off, back to the Gryffindor tower, he didn't stop running until he was in the common room, he dropped onto his bed, still robed in the 'usual' clothes that he would have worn back in the good days.

Blue fluffy shorts, red vest, open to reveal nothing but a clean chest (he regretted the loss of a memory), a yellow sash as a memory, feet clad in sandals and to top it off, his legendary straw hat.

Although, his muscles were beginning to develop everywhere, particularly his stomach, if he was able to keep up the amount of food he was receiving then he would definitely be able to get back up to his previous level of fitness.

He flopped onto the bed, letting out a content sigh, he nuzzled into the pillow and within a few seconds a snot bubble was blowing from his nose and he was snoring.

Ron jolted awake from his dream filled of a misty island filled with people covered in mismatched skin and scars sewn together with neatly drawn stitches.

He looked at the boy who lived and felt a strange rush of affection, the boy was sleeping in his 'muggle' clothes and a snot bubble was receding and coming back with every snore the boy created.

He wondered what everything was about and then thought that it didn't matter and went back to sleep.

When Luffy awoke it was to the sight of a stack of presents at the foot of his bed. "Whoa! Do I have presents?"

His question was answered with sleepy inquisitive looks before Ron smiled and said. "Yes, they are, Merry Christmas Harry."

Luffy dropped down in front of his bed to look at the presents, he pulled each to him with a look of reverence on his face, his Straw Hat crew had sent him gifts and even Ron and Hermione had sent him gifts.

Most of them sent him a variant of meat but Hagrid had sent him a roughly cut lion and some of his rock cakes.

Zoro had sent him preserved meat with a note suggesting to not eat it all. Sanji sent him a platter of all kinds of food and a royal red ankle length coat (a captain's one, fitting). Usopp had sent him a magical chess set.

He poked a present that felt rather soft. "Oh, that one's from my mum, I told her that you didn't expect a present and – oh no." He groaned. "She made you a Weasley sweater."

Luffy tilted his head, a question mark appearing above his head, instead he ripped the red paper open, inside was an emerald sweater, it wasn't his favourite colour but he could make an exception seeing as Mrs Weasley had put so much effort into it.

"Shishishi, that's so cool!" He smiled, clutching the sweater and the homemade fudge close to his chest.

Ron looked at the boy in surprise. "Every year she makes us a sweater." He said, unwrapping his own. "Mine's always maroon."

"Shishishi, she's really nice!"

By this time Dean had left to go shower.

Hermione sent him a large box of chocolates. And almost at the bottom of the pile was a very tiny package addressed to him from the Dursley family. Inside was a note that Luffy didn't bother to read and looked at the 50 pence taped to the note with a tad of resentment.

He shrugged, money was money after all, doesn't matter how you got it. There was only one package left, he opened it to reveal…

A silvery material slipped out of the paper like water, "Huh, what is this? Wonder who sent it to me?"

Ron looked over and his jaw dropped comically. "Have you got any idea of what that is?"

Luffy looked at Ron with a confused expression, "A silvery blanket thing?"

"No, if I'm right that is incredibly rare. Put it on."

Luffy swung the supple material around himself and was incredibly delighted to see himself disappear. "Wow! It's a mystery cloak!" He laughed and twirled around before realising a dilemma. "If anyone else is like the old geezer then they'll be able to tell where I am."

He pouted for a second before smiling his 100 watt smile once again. "It's an invisibility cloak." Ron informed Luffy. "Look! There's a note."

And sure enough a scrap of paper fluttered down from the grasps of the cloak and Luffy quickly scanned the words aloud. "Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well. A very merry Christmas to you. Hmm, I wonder who sent it to me."

After a few seconds Luffy exclaimed. "Gah! Thinking hurts!"

Ron and Luffy laughed together, Ron, mostly because he thought of it as a joke. "This mystery guy was nice to send something from James."

"Why do you call him James?" Ron asked, wasn't that just a tad disrespectful?

"It fits him better than Dad, I've grown up without him so he isn't really my father." Luffy exclaimed, applying the same logic that he did to Dragon.

Ron just frowned, he eventually shrugged it off.

Fred and George pushed open the dormitory door and yelled "Merry Christmas boys!" in sync.

"Oh would you look at that."

"Harry got one of the Weasley sweater too!"

Fred and George were adorned with blue sweaters with large yellow letters, proclaiming F's and G's.

"Why aren't you wearing yours Ron?" George demanded.

"Get it on, they're nice and cosy, follow the footsteps of the boy-who-lived." Fred added.

Ron moaned and pulled the sweater over his head, Luffy laughed at their antics. Luffy's was over the top of his red vest, with the red peeking over the top of the sweater, his straw hat was placed firmly on his head, the new cloak that Sanji had bought him was placed on over the top of the sweater, open to ensure everyone could see the sweater.

"I wonder why she put letters on ours and not yours." Fred mused.

"It's like she thinks that we forget our own names." George continued.

"But we know that we're Fred and George." They exclaimed in sync.

"What's all this noise?"

"There's P for prefect." Suddenly Percy was being pulled inside, lumpy package under his arm.

"Come on Percy, you gotta wear it too."

"I'm not wearing it." Percy said thickly, even as the twins quite literally forced the sweater over the prefects head knocking his glasses askew.

"And you're not sitting with the prefects either today, Christmas is all about family." George said, latching onto one of Percy's arms and George onto the other.

"Now let's go to the feast."

"Food! Food!" Luffy shouted and before anyone could say anything he had raced out of the room.

"Yo Dean, we're heading out to the feast now! See you there!" Ron knocked on the door and received a muffled sure for his efforts.

Luffy raced down to the great hall and stopped with saliva dripping out of his mouth onto the ground, there was so much food! Even more than that time that they had eaten at Vivi's palace after saving the kingdom from Crocodile. There was even more than when Hancock gave him his food.

"There's so much!"

It was amazing that nobody even blinked at the boy as he sat down and promptly began shoving as much food in his mouth as possible. His cheeks stretched abnormally which did make people look at him oddly.

Up at the teachers table were the teachers in various states of festive dress, Hagrid had tinsel wreathed into his beard, Flitwick had charmed some fairy lights into staying on at the school and had them wrapped around himself, McGonagall had her emerald cloak on and a red hat.

Dumbledore was wearing a paper crown, much like the ones in bonbons and even Snape had somehow been coerced into wearing one, much to his obvious displeasure.

Ron and his family finally caught up to Luffy and sat around him, piling their dishes with mashed potato, crackling, pork and vegetable. "I'll never understand how you can eat so much." Ron sighed and began eating his own helping.

"Wait, is that." Fred started.

"A captain's coat?" George finished, swallowing a mouthful of potato.

"Mhm, Sanji sent it to me." Luffy said, speaking around his mouthful of food.

"Sanji?" Percy asked confusedly.

"Oops, Draco, Sanji is his nickname." Luffy elaborated, still chewing.

"How exactly?" Ron asked, still confused.

"Because." Luffy looked to the side and began to whistle, not so inconspicuously.

The Weasley family sweatdropped and then promptly discontinued the pursuit of that answer, sensing that he was not going to tell them why.

And then the lunch was disappearing, giving way to desert and Dean finally joined them, immediately stuffing his face full.

Luffy yelped at the exploding Christmas pudding, almost falling off his seat in surprise, he had never seen anything like it!

"You alright mate?" Ron asked, patting Luffy on the back.

"Yeah, it just surprised me."

Percy almost broke his teeth biting down onto a sickle embedded in the slice and Hagrid was becoming progressively merry as he drank more wine. Eventually it reached a point where the half-giant leaned over and kissed McGonagall on the cheek who blushed and giggled like a middle-schooler (or like Hancock).

"Shishishi, these guys sure know what to do at a Christmas lunch." Luffy smiled appreciatively, watching the teachers and students around him, it was nice, being here and everything.

It would have been better with his crew but beggars cannot be choosers, and besides, he had Ron and Dean and the rest of the Weasley family to keep him company.

"Let's have a snowball fight." Luffy suddenly leaned into the Weasleys personal space, eyes glittering with excitement.

He didn't wait for a response and instead immediately ran outside leaving the red-haired family to follow him as fast as they could.

By the time the Weasleys had made it outside Luffy had already built a stack of snowballs and declared Ron his partner against the twins and Percy.

"You're on."

"The-boy-who-lived."

"Why not?"

"Hell yeah!"

And so it begun, Luffy quickly charming his snowballs to float over to the opposition and deposit their load onto them.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" They both used this spell to hit Percy and the twins faster.

At one point Luffy didn't need to worry about his wand as it hummed in assent and began charming the snowballs by itself leaving Luffy's other hand free to throw snowballs.

The twins and Percy found themselves severely outgunned and eventually surrendered with Luffy smiling like a loon and laughing heartily. "That was fun!" He proclaimed.

They all flopped onto the ground, grateful for the relief it provided from the heat of their battle.

"Blimey Harry, did you do non-verbal spells?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Not really, my wand just knew what it had to do." He explained, looking at his wand fondly.

"Wow, you're pretty strong Harry." Fred commented.

"Shishishi." Was the only reply, Luffy began moving his arms up and down where he lay, creating a snow angel.

The others caught on and soon they were back at it again, making snow-men, merman and mermaids, anything they could think of.

Overall it was one of the best Christmases he had ever partook in, there were better times with his crew, his _nakama._ But for the first one he had ever really had in this new new world it was pretty damn amazing.

They made it back in time _just,_ in time for the dinner. Luffy was delighted, there was still so much food! He shovelled it down, undeterred by the odd glances he received for his flexibility. The teachers looked on in shock at him, if he was using a spell it was incredibly advanced.

Eh, he was just one abnormal boy, they all concluded and went back to eating.

Later that night Luffy snuck out once again, this time with the cloak shrouding him in the night. As the portrait swung open the Fat Lady spoke shrilly. "Who's there, I demand you to reveal yourself."

Luffy ignored her demands and continued onward to a new adventure.

"Shishishi, now no-one except for the old geezer and my crew can know where I am."

He crept around the halls, eyes picking out any and every detail of his surroundings. He wasn't looking for anything in particular but was simply exploring the never ending vastness of the castle.

It was around midnight that he found _that_ room again. The one with the mystery mirror in it. Luffy flopped down amongst his brothers, his family and his _nakama._ And there, amongst his crew stood the family from this life, they looked at him sadly and Luffy understood why.

"I'm sorry, I never truly was yours, but thank you for protecting me in this life." He said, bowing deeply to the pair.

He remembered the pair of them, back when he was nothing but a baby, he had full consciousness when they cooed around him delightedly. He remembers the picnics they had together out in grassy fields that happened to be filled with runes that would protect them briefly.

He also remembers a man with shaggy hair and a smile that lit up the room, that man reminded him of his brother so much that it _hurt._ He had introduced himself as Sirius and laughed with James and Lili as they watched the ocean together.

Another was a thin man with a moustache that looked so _sad._ He was haunted by something but whenever he was with Sirius, James and Lili he was so happy, his smile lit up the room. He had confided to the boy that he was cursed but that his father and godfather had both protected him. He had introduced himself as Remus.

And the last man was one who had buck-teeth and a bit of a hunch, he introduced himself as Wormtail. He informed the child that he loved his family _very_ much. But even so, Luffy couldn't help it, he simply did not trust the man, there was a feel to him that was dark.

But these parents were dead, dead because they were protecting _him_ when he should've been strong enough to save them himself. Do _anything_ , but because he was so young there was nothing he could do but watch on in horror as they both fell to the evil man's green light.

Finally he looked at himself, a young man with shaggy hair and two scars he proudly showed the world, one just underneath his eye, a testament to his strength worlds ago. And another, a persistent reminder of how he had failed to protect his own brother.

"I'm sorry you too you lot." He now spoke to the reflections of his nakama. "We completed our dreams but at a great cost, I'm so, so sorry, you should have lived to a ripe old age."

They smiled as if to say _"It's alright."_

He leaned forward and spoke shakily. "I wish you were _all_ here with me, it's not fair. I just want to see you all again, maybe we could sail again, how would you like that?"

They sat around him, attempting to comfort him in ways impossible for the dead to do, well, not all dead, but their original forms were, long gone. Probably less than skeletons now.

He went through the next day dully, lazing by the lake and watching the giant squid whom he had nicknamed "Tentacles" play with a ball he had found in the mystery room.

He was lonely and he knew exactly where he was once again going tonight, his nakama weren't here so he would make them be.

He trudged to the mirror, plonking down in front of it, eyes drawn to the floor before finally _finally_ looking up to meet the glances of his nakama, his family.

"So, back again Harry?"

Luffy jolted upright at that voice, veins turning to ice, and then to magma _how dare he intrude on this?_ And back to a much more mellow temperature, Dumbledore probably wasn't intending on intruding.

Sitting on the desks was Albus Dumbledore, eyes twinkling behind his spectacles. Luffy honestly had no idea how he had walked straight past the man, unless the man had walked in _after_ Luffy, but he quickly cancelled that idea, there was no way he wouldn't have heard the door creak open.

"I didn't see you there old geezer." Luffy said thickly.

"Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you," said Dumbledore, eyes still twinkling, alerting Luffy to his amusement.

"I guess."

"So," said Dumbledore, slipping off the desk to sit on the floor with Luffy who pulled his coat around himself tighter, "You, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."

"I didn't know it was called that."

"I expect you know what its' purpose is now."

"Well, does it show dead people?"

Dumbledore just lightly chuckled. "No. Let me explain. The happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror, that is, he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is. Does that help?"

"Uhm, does it show what you want the most in life?" Luffy asked.

"Yes and no. It shows you your family whom you have never met before and what I'm assuming are long gone friends. This mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible."

Luffy outright laughed at that last statement. "Shishishi, half of the things I have seen here are thought to be impossible and yet here we are."

"Yes, indeed." Dumbledore conceded quietly. "The mirror is moving to a new home tomorrow, I advise you to not come searching for it."

While Dumbledore seemed to be making a request his voice told Luffy that there would be punishment if he was to look for it once more. Luffy felt his heart ache, he wouldn't be able to see them anymore.

"Now, why don't you put that admirable cloak back on and pop off to bed." Dumbledore stood with Luffy who smiled once more at the old geezer before he vanished from sight.

Although Luffy realised that the old geezer could still see him, "Of course he can." He muttered under his breath before racing back to his bed.

Flopping onto his bed fully dressed Luffy looked up at the fabric that covered his four poster bed. He sighed, loudly. It was all fun while it had lasted but tomorrow his _real_ friends would be coming home and he could finally _finally_ put that mirror behind him.

"Zoro!" A blur of red, blue and yellow launched himself at the swordsman who quickly dropped whatever he was holding to accommodate for the rubber captain that had launched himself at him.

"Luffy! Don't do that! What would have happened if I dropped you huh?" Zoro asked angrily, trying to pry his captain's arms from his abdomen.

"Shishishi, I knew that Zoro would catch me." And damn, if that didn't make Zoro feel all warm on the inside.

Zoro blushed madly, much to the delight of Sanji who laughed outright at his predicament. "Shitty cook."

And then they were battling with Luffy still clinging to Zoro, oh well, Zoro thought, it's another way to fight. Luffy laughed from his place and instead flung himself at the blonde haired chef who yelped in surprise which allowed Zoro to land a hit on the cook's head.

"Dammit Luffy!" People had stopped by to look at the spectacle that was the demon trio.

"Hey guys." Usopp came through the door and Luffy immediately grabbed him, forcing the four of them onto the ground in a dog pile.

"Get away from me moron!" Zoro was pressed up against Sanji, Luffy laughed from the top of the pile at their protests.

"Shishishi, I missed you guys."

His statement was met with silence and affectionate looks.

"Herminny!" And then the moment was over and Luffy was launching himself at a bushy haired girl, thankfully, he pulled up short, Hermione did not have the same strength as the Straw Hat pirates.

"Harry!" She gave him a hug, one that he returned eagerly.

She was disappointed to discover that Harry had not found out anything about Nicla Famel, as he had said.

They trained harder than ever, finally unlocking the potential for observational haki and armament. However, the armament was only spots at a time but it was a start.

As their training got harder so did Quiddit training. Wood informed them that if they beat Hufflepuff they were going to overtake Slytherin, but then he broke the bad news during a particularly muddy training session.

"Snape is going to referee the next game and he'll be looking for any excuse to dock points."

Luffy didn't complain with the team, he just frowned, for some reason Snake despised his existence, he knew that he wasn't the one who had screwed up his broom, he would be able to tell that at least.

That left Quirrell as his main suspect, the man _reeked_ of darkness, a primordial evil. But, no man had existed like that since the 16th century and Luffy suspected that this disgusting excuse of existence had most likely cursed themselves.

He hated the feeling, it was just so _wrong._ And he knew he wasn't the only one who disliked Quirrell, while Zoro, Sanji and Usopp didn't voice their opinions they all watched the man like a hawk whenever he was in the room. To add to that Zoro and Usopp both fingered their weapons of choice, in Usopp's case – nervously. Sanji gripped the sheath hidden in his robe where his wand was and he twitched, eagerly anticipating the moment when he would finally be able to smoke once more.

Luffy and his crew kept searching for Nicolas Flamel, the only solid lead they had on the mystery package. "Guys." Luffy whined one afternoon. "Why can't we just steal the mystery package, we're pirates aren't we?"

"Yes but if Dumbledore put it there to be protected then it must be really powerful, let's just wait and see what happens." Usopp reasoned, looking up from his potions essay in the library.

"Ughh, but waiting is so boring." Luffy whinged, shoving a finger up his nose to the disgust of many surrounding him.

"I agree with Luffy on this, we should go back to." Zoro hesitated for a moment. "Fluffy, that way we'll know how to get in if someone decides to steal it."

"Eh, I want to wait to see who the agent is. My money's on Snape, he's always at our house, and the only people in the Malfoy people are supporters of Voldemort."

People hissed at Sanji's choice of words, none of the Straw Hats censored their words, except for maybe Usopp who clearly remembered Eneru.

"It's not Snape." Luffy said immediately, pulling his head from his arms. "Quirrell is the one who _stinks._ "

They chose not to comment, instead silently agreeing or disagreeing with their captain.

Quidditch approached much faster than anyone had anticipated.

But Luffy was unconcerned, he had his friends to protect him from anything that might occur, and besides, Snape _was not_ the one after the mystery parcel.

It turned out that nobody had to worry about anything as within the first two minutes Luffy was in a dive, a hurtling streak of scarlet and yellow.

"I did it guys! Shishishi!" Luffy yelled from his position where he tightly grasped the golden sphere.

They cheered along with everyone else, (a little prouder but no one was going to call them out for it), Usopp nudged Sanji. "Oi, Snape's heading out, you want to follow him?"

Sanji nodded his assent.

"Oi, moss-head, Snape's heading for the forest, I'm going to follow him." Sanji whispered to Zoro before taking off after the hooded figure who was leaving towards the Forbidden Forest.

Unfortunately Sanji couldn't simply use Gepo to arrive when he was near the pitch, it would be quite effective in ensuring that he would not be out of Sanji's sight, but, he was too close to the spectators so he settled for walking until he was well out of the sights of unwanted attention.

He jumped up to one of the taller trees, crouching down in a squat to listen to the unlikely duo of Snape and Quirrell.

He pulled out a tone dial, Usopp made him carry one wherever he went, just for cases like this. He held the button that would allow him to record their conversation.

Sanji frowned at their conversation, he _knew_ that Snape was rotten, but something seemed off about the whole situation. If Snape _really_ wanted that information then he could just torture the stuttering professor.

"Have you found a way to get past that three-headed dog yet?" Snape asked.

"W-w-well, n-not y-y-ye-e-t-t, I w-w-wil-l." The urban clad man stuttered, ringing his hands nervously.

"You better make it soon." Snape informed Quirrell.

Sanji watched and waited for their little moment to finish before quickly running through the air to report his findings to his captain.

"Luffy!"

"There you are Sanji! What was Snake doing?"

"Let's go to the, the mystery room." He really didn't want to call it 'mystery room' but there still was no name for the room.

"Shishishi, race ya!"

And they were off, Usopp and Zoro trailing behind having heard their exchange. "Why you little-"

Luffy arrived first, Usopp surprisingly second and Zoro and Sanji were racing each other and exchanging blow through the air, causing anyone nearby to scurry away in fear of injury.

Sanji set the dial upon the table of the Merry, going about and cooking food up, (mostly meat). The others gathered around the innocuous looking object of interest.

Luffy pressed the top of the shell.

"... d-don't know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus..."

"Oh, I thought we'd keep this private," said Snape, his voice icy.

"Students aren't supposed to know about the Sorcerer's Stone, after all."

"Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?"

"B-b-but Severus, I -"

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell," said Snape.

"I-I don't know what you."

"You know perfectly well what I mean."

The sound of an owl cut off a few of the words both Quirrell and Snape had spoken.

"- your little bit of hocus-pocus. I'm waiting."

"B-but I d-d-don't -"

"Very well," Snape cut in. "We'll have another little chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decided where your loyalties lie."

"Huh." Luffy said, staring at the dial in interest.

"Huh? That's all you've got to say? What about, we know that Snape is definitely after a thing called the Sorcerer's stone, what more evidence do we need to see that Snape is definitely after this Sorcerer's stone?" Sanji huffed out, he knew a bad egg when he smelt it, he lit a cigarette, his captain was being ridiculously obstinate.

Luffy pulled his hat down over his eyes. "It's not Snape, whatever that is, I still don't think that Snape is the one." He said simply.

Zoro agreed with him, there was no way that Luffy's instincts were ever wrong, maybe there were a few instances where he had not made the right call on some people, but on others, like Robin he had been right on the mark.

"Ooh! Wait, I've heard of the sorcerer's stone!" Usopp shouted excitedly, racing out of the mystery room.

The crew hesitated a second before Luffy jumped up and raced after his wayward friend.

"Hey what are you lot doing in here?" One of the Hufflepuff's questioned the crew angrily. "Tryin to rub it in our faces?" They silently followed their friend up into his room, ignoring the outraged cries of the Hufflepuffs.

"Hey you can't be in here." One of Usopp's roommates protested, they paid him no heed however, instead, they gathered around Usopp's bed where he had dropped a dusty tome atop it.

"Nicolas Flamel. Nicolas Flamel, ah here!" Usopp pointed at the article on Flamel. "I remembered reading about Nicolas Flamel but it wasn't until you mentioned Sorcerer's Stone that I really remembered. The stone makes the user immortal and can turn ordinary stones into gold and precious jems."

"Really?! That's so cool!" Stars popped out of their captain's eyes. "I want one."

"Nami-swan would want one too." Sanji cooed, fantasising over giving her the stone and watching her face light up before she-

"Stop being creepy." Zoro admonished, hitting Sanji with a sheathed blade.

This caused an outbreak of violence between the pair before Usopp – quite bravely – cut in, causing the pair to pay attention.

"Well, it says here that the only one to have ever owned it is Nicolas Flamel, meaning he's over six hundred years old."

"Wow! He's an old geezer, I mean, he was alive when Brook was!" Luffy exclaimed. "And when Roger was executed."

"How didn't we hear anything about this guy then?" Sanji asked thoughtfully, chewing on his toothpick.

"We should tell Hermine, she'd probably know more about this Sorcerer's stone." Luffy said, lifting himself up from where he was seated.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Usopp said, closing the book and setting it down beside his bed.

"Let's go!"

That night the Gryffindor common room was ablaze with partying, none had dared try and chase out Usopp and Zoro as the duo were friends with the boy-who-lived and ergo, they had to be good.

"Ooh, meat!" Luffy salivated at the hunk of meat sitting on top of a white plate.

"Make sure you leave some for the girls." Sanji cried out from his place talking (shamelessly flirting) with a group of the older girls by the fire.

Someone had managed to sneak in firewhiskey and Zoro had been reeled into a competition on who could hold their liquor down the best.

Unfortunately for the various students who agreed, they had no idea as to what they were agreeing to, in four rounds, all contesters were staggering away, slurring drunkenly.

Usopp was weaving tales of his adventures (some real, others, not so much) to a captive audience of first years.

Luffy finally found Hermione amongst the mess of the common room. "This is highly irresponsible." She sniffed, writing down their transfiguration essay.

"Hey, Herminny, we found out who Nicolas Flamel is, he's a guy who has the Saucy stone."

"I'm sorry but the what?"

"Y'know, the sorcey."

Thankfully, Zoro dropped in for a second to translate. "He means the Sorcerer stone."

And he went back to sipping firewhiskey and challenging Sanji to a duel.

"The Sorcerer's stone?!"

And she was off, racing up to her dormitory and back in the time it took Luffy to swallow his hunk of meat whole.

"The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. There have been many reports of the Sorcerer's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight)."

"That's the one." Luffy said around a mouthful of more meat.

"Do you know what this means?"

At Luffy's inquisitive glance she elaborated. "It means that whoever wants the stone must want immortality or to be incredibly rich. I bet that's why Flamel asked Dumbledore to look after it, he knew someone would come after it."

"Shishishi, you're pretty smart." He laughed at her deductions, they were most likely true.

The night faded away into a blur of stolen liquor, delicious food and nakamaship. Some would have hangovers in the morning, Zoro probably wouldn't, he napped enough that he most likely had a week's worth of sleep stored up.

No-one tried to move Usopp or Zoro from their places in a dog pile with their captain. Luffy himself had gorged himself to the point where Sanji had been forced to cook him his usual amount of food and more.

The night was a memorable one, one that none that dwelled in Gryffindor (or Slytherin and Hufflepuff in Zoro and Usopp's cases) would forget for many years to come.

 _Was it any good?_


	9. Chapter 9

Ok, _so just a couple of things. One of the reviews I received off Feldoran (thanks for the review btw) said they didn't understand why Luffy would be good at chess, I understand where you're coming from but the Luffy I am using is a lot older cos y'know, Pirate King and all, so I thought that he'd mature just the teensiest bit from his 19 (I'm fairly sure that's how old he is in the manga now) year old self. Also, by popularity I now know who to put as Ace and Sabo! So bless y'all for that._

Everyone was in varying states of hangover in the morning, but despite this Professor McGonagall burst into their dormitory at the early time of 7:00 and made them all get up despite their protests.

While her lips were pressed tightly together in disapproval her eyes conveyed her mirth, "Shishishi, Zoro! Usopp! Sanji! Let's go to breakfast!" Luffy shouted from the top of his dog pile.

The other members got up with minimal grumbling, they had gotten used to getting up in the mornings after partying hard.

McGonagall looked at the quartet in amusement, "Let's go!"

And with that they raced out of the dormitory, still clad in their 'muggle' clothes. They ran all the way to the Great Hall, following their captain to the scent of food.

While the morning started off as peaceful the day definitely wasn't, Hermione was on their cases for exams and it seemed that the teachers were as well. "But Herminny!" Luffy complained at the sight of her colour-coded notes. "Exams are ten weeks away."

"Ten weeks is not long at all!" Hermione said in exasperation.

Thankfully, by this time Sanji had mastered a copying spell so that Luffy would actually have all of the required notes.

And the other teachers started hammering down on them, meaning that their training presided _after_ Quidditch training and homework. It was frustrating to say the least, their training had hit a bit of a block.

And even when the Easter holidays arrived the homework was ridiculously piled up, so much that the crew started pulling all-nighters, resulting in the requirements of a lot more coffee. They all had bags underneath their eyes but it definitely was worth it.

Sanji, Zoro and Luffy had mastered observational haki. It was comforting to constantly feel his crew mates' auras pulsing through the air, they were some of the stronger ones, the only one who was up to par with theirs was Dumbledore.

Usopp was quickly learning once more, after the fight at Dressrosa where he took down Sugar Luffy had eventually grilled down on him to learn the haki properly. This gave him a head start, now it was just a matter of relearning it.

They were in the library one day intensely studying when they noticed a shifty presence. "Hey Hagid, what are you doing here?"

Luffy asked the half-giant who was trying to subtly hide something behind his back. Key word being trying.

"Nothin'." Hagrid said, his voice turned sharp. "Wha' are you lot doin' 'ere? Not lookin' for Nicolas Flamel are ye?"

"Nah, we already know what Fluffy is protecting." Luffy said smiling at the giant.

"Do yer now?"

"Yup, the saucey stone!"

"Don' go yellin' 'bout it!" Hagrid shouted at them. "An' beside' it's the _Sorcerer's Stone._ "

"That's what I said."

Hagrid looked bemused by his way of speaking and forgetting names. "Well, I best be o' then, come see me 'nytime yer want."

"Okay, see ya Hagrid!" Luffy waved at his friend enthusiastically. "Also, why do you have an egg behind your back?"

"What, I don' have a' egg." Hagrid said nervously.

"If you say so." Luffy smiled once more at the man who hastily backed away out of the library.

"What kind of an egg was it?" Hermione asked curiously. "Also, how did you know that?"

"It was a -." Whatever Luffy was going to say was cut off by Sanji's hand slapping over his mouth with a sickening snap.

"What he meant to say is that the egg was a normal rooster one." Sanji improvised, Hermione didn't need to know that the egg hidden by Hagrid's hulking frame was a dragon's egg. She would probably tell a teacher.

"How can you tell?" She asked, frowning at their antics.

This time Usopp jumped in, "Because we saw him before and we saw that it was obviously an egg, I use them sometimes."

"Huh, you guys must have sharp eyes." Hermione said, with a touch of awe and suspicion evident in her voice.

"Of course, I am Sogeking!" Usopp proclaimed, loudly enough for others to hear him.

Zoro woke up to hit the boy on the head with a sheathed sword. "Idiot."

"Soge-what now?" Ron asked confusedly.

"It means Sniper King!" Usopp yelled, placing a leg on the table and puffing his chest out to make himself look important.

"Idiot." Sanji said kicking Usopp.

"Let's go see Hagrild later!" Luffy said, looking up from his place where he was studying the uses of plants.

All crew members nodded their assent, including Hermione and Ron.

Later that afternoon they arrived at Hagrid's hut, Luffy shouted to the groundskeeper. "Hagrilde, we're here!"

The door swung open along with a blast of hot air. "Hey 'arry, how are yer?" The half-giant smiled widely at their entourage, hands clad in mismatched oven mits.

"Not bad Hagrid, can we see the dragon you're hiding?" Luffy asked bluntly, causing the groundskeeper to flinch and shush the boy, loudly.

"Get in 'ere." He said gruffly, ushering them all in to the stifling hut that was more like a boiling pot, it didn't seem to affect any of the Straw Hats, mysteriously enough.

Hermione looked at Luffy in obvious shock, so it was a dragon egg? There! In the fire was an egg the shade of obsidian, becoming gradually warmer the longer it spent in its 'home'.

"Hagrid, is that…?" Ron trailed off, staring at the egg intensely. "Where'd you get it? It must've cost a fortune."

"I won it las' night, in a game of cards with a stranger, think 'e was glad ter be rid of it, ter be honest." Hagrid twiddled his thumbs on the wooden table.

"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" said Hermione.

"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'." said Hagrid, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library - Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit - it's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on I em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here - how ter recognize diff'rent eggs - what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."

Luffy looked at the egg in awe, stars appearing in his eyes. "I wonder what this breed tastes like." He muttered just loud enough for Sanji to kick him over the head in admonishment.

"Idiot! You don't eat dragon!"

"But Sanji, we ate one on Punk Hazard and it was delicious." Luffy whined.

"You can't eat it in this world Luffy," Sanji sighed.

It was amazing that the half-giant was unable to hear the words spoken but that might be due to the fact that he was caught up in his own conversation with a very displeased Hermione Granger.

"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," She said, looking at him in obvious disapproval.

Hagrid stoked the fire in favour of answering Hermione's statement, he hummed merrily to himself as he poked the embers.

"This is so freaking cool!" Luffy shouted, jumping up and fist pumping the air.

Everyone sans Hagrid sweat dropped. "Uhm, Hagrid." Usopp started, shifting on his feet. "What are you gonna do when that thing gets older?"

"Erm, well… we'll cross tha' bridge when we come ter it." Hagrid sweated nervously.

"Cool!"

And that was that, when they were finally able to drag Luffy away from the groundskeeper and his dragon it was much to Luffy's disappointment.

"But what happens if someone discovers that Hagrid has a dragon?" Hermione persisted, after failing to elicit a satisfactory response from their captain.

"No-one will, and if they do I'll make sure that they don't tell anyone else." Luffy smiled, he liked that groundskeeper, as if he'd allow something to happen to him.

Hermione looked sceptical and seemed to want to argue further but at the last second opted to instead give them study schedules. "But Hermione, I don't wanna." Luffy whined, Zoro outright rejected the idea much to the chagrin of the witch. Usopp and Sanji were the only two to accept, Usopp because he knew he would need it and Sanji because he would never reject a female.

It was getting ridiculously difficult to train because the combined forces of Usopp, Sanji and Hermione were forcing the other two members (and Ron) to study hard for the upcoming exams.

Each of the students had a strong point, Usopp, herbology, that probably had something to do with spending a solid two years on a carnivorous plant island, he was also fairly decent at charms. Sanji was a pro at potions, most likely due to his years being a cook, he _did_ have to learn the right ratios for food and put them into practise. Zoro was good at anything practical, after all, he did have three wands that all were specialised for different things. But overall, his best was charms and defence against the dark arts.

And Luffy, he was good at anything explained to him carefully by either a teacher or one of the Straw Hats, he was fairly good at defence against the dark arts, (hey, they were new _creatures_ that were apparently impossible to defeat), charms and transfiguration as he was determined to learn how to transform a chair into a piece of meat, it also had something to do with the fact that all he did was think what he needed done to his wand and it got it done.

Hermione was good at just about everything and Ron was average in most subjects, however, he did fail abysmally in potions.

Then, at one breakfast Southy cooed its strange hoot and dropped a parchment with two words on it. Luffy whooped loudly when he read them. "Zoro! Usopp!" He called loudly for his friends, they gathered around him, eager to hear their captain's new adventure.

The parchment had two words on it; it's hatching.

Hermione tried to stop them from skipping Herbology but in the end Luffy simply put her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, much to Hermione's displeasure and Sanji's outraged call of 'That's not how you treat a lady shitty captain!" and ran all the way to Hagrid's hut, his friends trailing behind.

Poor Ron, he was so unfit. "Can't." pant. "You." Pant. "Slow." Pant. "Down?" He gasped out as he struggled to keep up to Neville.

"Sorry Ron, he's always like this." Neville replied to the boy whose face was rapidly turning shades darker than his hair, panting in exertion.

They arrived at the hut to see Hagrid beaming at them all happily, he was red in the face. "Come along you lot." He ushered them inside, making them tea.

Luffy plopped down on the ground, resting his head on the table and watching the egg excitedly.

The others watched on with various degrees of excitement. "You know, my brother Charlie looks after dragons." Ron said after the silence had dragged on to the point of awkwardness.

Immediately Luffy turned to him, stars lighting up his emerald eyes. "Can I meet your brother? I wanna see dragons!" He exclaimed.

"Erm, I guess, whenever he comes back from Romania." As soon as he finished Luffy jumped up from his position and started to dance, he screamed excitedly at the prospect of meeting older, full-sized dragons.

Ron sweat dropped at his enthusiasm. Thankfully he was spared from answering as from the egg, noises of scratching emanated outward. And just like that, Luffy's thought process was reduced to eagerly watching the egg and waiting for it to reveal its contents.

And then a loud scraping noise dragged itself across their ears and the egg split in half to reveal a jet black spindly looking dragon. Its wings were the same size as its body and it blew a few sparks out.

The dragon had captured everybody's attention in various states of awe. "Ain't she beau'iful?" Hagrid asked, attempting to stroke the dragon, it immediately snapped at his fingers with a mouth full of syringe like teeth.

It seemed to glare at Hagrid with its bright orange orbs. "Hey there buddy." Luffy cooed at the onyx creature, he clicked his fingers and to Hagrid, Hermione and Ron's surprise the dragon immediately hopped over to Luffy and started to allow him to stroke it. "Do you poop?"

Hermione looked outraged at such a question, Ron balked at the sheer absurdity, the Straw Hat sighed resignedly and Hagrid ignored him in favour of staring intently at the dragon that was slowly crawling up Luffy's body.

And the dragon, the little dragon cawed an affirmative.

"You don't answer!" Ron and Hermione shouted.

Hagrid looked a little sad at the actions of the dragon favouring Luffy but took it in his stride, Ron and Hermione were incredulous. Ron knew first-hand how unpredictable and uncontrollable dragons were without force but here one had willingly hopped onto a mere _human,_ albeit it was the boy-who-lived but that did not take away his reverence for his friend.

Hermione was shocked because in every book she had ever read about dragons they had all stated that dragons were creatures that bowed to none unless under extreme torture or in the case of the Dragons Lords who had reigned over the ancient city of Camelot. She had a vague understanding of what happened beneath Gringotts with how the poor dragon were treated which made it all the more awesome when Harry simply clicked at it and it had responded in the best kind of way.

"Shishishi!" Luffy laughed as the dragon breathed fire onto his unprotected neck, while it did burn a little it reminded Luffy of a certain someone, but to name a creature after his brother was unprecedented.

Instead, Luffy allowed Hagrid to name the majestic creature 'Norberta', he really wanted to say that the 'Norberta' was actually a 'Norbert' but where would be the fun in that?

"Um, Hagrid, I hate to spoil the mood but you are aware that Norberta will be the size of your house in two weeks?" Hermione pointed out, snapping out of her reverence.

"Shishishi, by that time she'd be able to live in the forest!" Luffy said happily, stroking Norbert's head in pure unadulterated joy.

"Nah, it's okay Hagrid, we could give her to Charlie who would look after her until she was old enough to fend for herself in the wild." Ron reassured Hagrid.

Zoro watched with one eye open, looking at the dragon in mild interest, however, if the dragon did make one ill-willed move towards his captain he would most definitely destroy it. It also wasn't as awesome as the two fully fledged dragons they had met at Punk Hazard, hell, even Momonosuke was cooler than this little thing.

Sanji smiled at the dragon perched on his captain's shoulder, he had never actually _seen_ a real dragon before in this life – they had all seen the dragon at Punk Hazard and Momonosuke with the exception of Jinbe. Whenever his parents had offered, he refused, he always tried to stay out of their way. But now, he was curious as to whether dragon would taste any good?

Luffy had said it tasted delicious but it was _Luffy_ , the man who would eat literally any meat simply on the principal that it was _meat._

Usopp was just the teensiest bit afraid, not that he'd ever admit that, he was a brave warrior of the see with a resolve to never flinch away from his enemy regardless of how strong they were. (But even so he couldn't help but inch closer to the swordsman in hope of protection).

Eventually dinner time rolled around and the crew and their extra friends waved good bye to Norberta and their half-giant of a friend.

As they made their way to the Great Hall Luffy and Sanji discussed what dragon would taste like and Sanji resolved to learn how to make it over his summer break, if only to see the bliss on his captain's face.

They continued to care for Norberta in every way possible, the dragon had taken a liking to their captain so he was the one who turned up most frequently.

Thankfully for everyone else Charlie had returned their letter and had somehow arranged for Norberta to be picked up from the Astronomy Tower at midnight on the upcoming Saturday night.

"Shishishi, that won't be a problem." Luffy assured Ron. "We have the cloak thingy and I can tell when somebody is coming."

Ron looked immensely relieved at these words and thanked Luffy profusely for helping them. "Really, it's no problem, Hagrilde is my friend."

Luffy was the only one of them allowed to see Norbert as he was the only one with a mild about of control over the fledging dragon for a reason that none of the people of this world could understand.

Hagrid welcomed Luffy inside eagerly, he had no idea why Harry could control the baby dragon but he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth when it presented itself to him. "So what's the news?"

"Charlie agreed to take care of Norbert, a. he said to deliver _her_ to the Astronomy Tower at midnight on this Saturday night." Luffy explained, carefully selecting his words as to not worry the half giant.

"Did 'e now?" Hagrid snivelled a bit at the prospect, he looked longingly at Norberta, no doubt counting the days down until his newest friend would be leaving.

"Yep! He's gonna get some friends of his to take good care of Norberta." Luffy smiled widely at his friend and Norberta.

On the Friday night Ron finally asked the question he had been dying to ask. "Hey Harry, how exactly are we going to get Norberta up to the Astronomy Tower?"

"Well, I was just gonna carry her up."

Usopp face-palmed, Zoro and Sanji sweatdropped and Hermione and Ron looked just _slightly_ incredulous. "But what about the handlers coming to get her?" Hermione waited to elicit some form of a response that would not want her to smash her head against a wall repeatedly.

"Oh yeah, I didn't think of that shishishi, Hermit you're so smart." While Hermione was readily blushing from his compliment she still frowned at the shaggy-haired boy. "Well, Hagrilde can come up with something."

They collectively groaned at their stupid captain, well not captain per say for Ron and Hermione but he might as well be.

Later at training Luffy was pouting, pouting so much that he was starting to slow down his punches. "What's up Luffy?" Usopp asked, ready to brave his captain's emotions.

Luffy fixed his crew-mates with a serious look. "I've always wanted a pet dragon."

They all inwardly groaned. "Luffy, the dragon was Hagrid's to begin with so even if she was staying she wouldn't be with you."

"I know." He whined. "But, Usopp, it's a dragon!" He emphasised his last words specifically, as if they made everything make more sense.

Well, to say the least Zoro and Sanji were just mildly upset with their captain, they didn't show it to his face, however, even without showing their emotions there was little doubt that Luffy could feel their emotions. And if they increased the intensity and frequency of their attacks on their captain then nobody would call them out on it.

The following night saw the demon trio hurrying down to Hagrid's hut after carefully forcing Peeves away from the hallway leading out of the castle with a distraction – courtesy of Usopp and Ron who were acting as lookout.

Hermione had elected to not join in their activities, haughtily stating that there was already a ridiculous amount of them out of bed and another would probably get them caught.

They arrived at the hut without meeting another soul, all of the teachers were either sleeping or wandering around other parts of the castle, this was a good omen in Zoro's books and fortuitous in Sanji's.

But, naturally, it would take a miracle for nothing to happen with the transportation of the quickly aging dragon.

"Hagrid!" Zoro whispered loudly, since their captain was incapable of being quiet Sanji was currently distracting him.

The half-giant opened the door with a heavy looking crate in front of him, he was blubbering, Zoro noted. "He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey," said Hagrid in a muffled voice. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely."

None of the demon trio decided to notify Hagrid that the tearing noise coming from the box was definitely the black demon of a dragon ripping a teddy bear head off its' body.

Zoro hefted the precious cargo up onto his shoulder and followed shitty-cook, when he had protested the arrangement Luffy had smiled and said with a shit eating grin that he would prefer to get to the Astronomy Tower. "Why you little…"

They would have outright brawled there and then Sanji forcefully reminded them of their mission. "Come on." Thankfully their observational haki alerted them to the presence of Filch and teachers, because of their cargo, Zoro and Norbert were hidden underneath the silvery folds of the invisibility cloak.

Secretly, Usopp and Ron were waiting at the Astronomy Tower, because Usopp had such good vision he perched near the window, covering their escape route.

They had been following them before and thus had distracted Peeves away from the Great Hall where he had been throwing a tennis ball against the wall repetitively.

After they successfully made their way inside the castle Usopp stood in the doorway, carefully eyeing the halls for their wayward friends. He did have to move back in the doorway several times as Filch decided to check that hallway.

The monster trio finally arrived, still arguing over meaningless things. "Everything okay?" He asked in a hushed tone.

"Yeah, Professor Cat was up." Luffy reported, scratching his head in bewilderment. "And Zoro, I mean Seamus almost got lost."

"I did not!" Zoro spluttered indignantly. "It's just that the hallway moved."

"Sure." Sanji said, chewing on a toothpick, he would pull out a cigarette but he had no doubts that Ron would tell someone who would mind him and his habit, so for now he sated his addiction by chewing on a poor substitute.

And then, Charlie's friends melted away from the darkness. There was four, each atop a broomstick, they were all very friendly and laughed with Luffy and his whims. "Take good care of him." Luffy said, patting the dragon's crate once more before allowing Charlie's friends to strap the crate into a harness they had brought with them.

"We will, and if you ever want to get in touch to come to Romania talk to Charlie, we'd all be delighted to have you there Harry." One of the men who's shaggy brown hair stopped just before a deep scar that ran the length of his face said happily.

And with that the night stole them away. Usopp was about to open the door when Luffy quickly halted him. "Quick, under here." Luffy threw the cloak over Usopp, Ron and Sanji.

He grabbed Zoro and hopped up onto one of the support beams, just in time too. Filch burst into the room wielding a broomstick. "I could have sworn I heard that wretched boys laugh in here." Filch growled, not unlike his cat.

Thankfully after realising the room was completely empty (he didn't look up the idiot) he walked out, Mrs Norris quick on his heels.

The group let out a collective sigh they were unaware they were holding and Zoro and Luffy lightly jumped down from their hiding place whilst Sanji, Usopp and Ron pulled the cloak off themselves. "The coast is clear, Sanji, go with Zoro and Usopp and make sure that they get back to their dorms safely." Luffy said with a clear authoritative voice, it was a tone that sent shivers down Ron's spine.

Sanji nodded and nobody raised a complaint, Sanji, Zoro and Usopp raced out of the room, footsteps light enough that it became impossible to discern them from the oppressing silence.

"Let's go Ron." Luffy said and whirled the cloak back over his friend, they dare not speak a word through the hallways, Luffy had given Ron a lot to think about and with a jolt Ron realised that the Straw Hat theory Hermione had suggested might not be that insane.

They reached the dorm without coming across a teacher but that was mostly because Luffy redirected their route when he sensed somebody coming. Ron went to go into their dorm but realised Harry wasn't following, he gestured to the stairs. "You coming?"

"Nah, you go on ahead, I'm just waiting for Draco." Luffy smiled reassuringly, Ron shrugged and crawled into bed and was asleep within seconds due to his exhaustion.

"Hi Hermine." Luffy murmured suddenly, looking at the corner where the bushy haired girl was propped up. A light snore escaped her lips and Luffy snorted, "Come on, let's get you to bed."

And with uncharacteristically gentle arms, Luffy lifted Hermione up bridal style. As he attempted to walk up the stairs he remembered a vital piece of information.

 _"If a boy tries to go up to the girl's dorms then the staircase will immediately turn to smooth stone."_ A voice that sounded a lot like Percy resounded in his head.

"Oops." Was the only word muttered before Luffy jumped up the stairs using Gepo, they landed safely on the top of the landing with Hermione none the wiser.

Luffy pulled open the correct door and gently laid the girl on her bed, said girl immediately curled around her pillow.

"Hmm, so Sanji finally arrived." He muttered, feeling Sanji's repressed aura enter the common room. "Guess that's my cue."

He leapt into the common room, taking a seat next to his cook who was staring intently at the fire burning gently in its hearth. He took a long needed drag of his cigarette, watching the smoke intermingle with that of which the fire produced.

"Do you ever wonder whether we're doing the right thing?" Sanji suddenly asked, pulling his legs up in front of him, in response Luffy frowned with a bit of confusion.

"We're doing what we can." He said simply. "I hope to one day find remnants of _our_ world and find the rest of the crew." He clutched the Straw Hat a little tighter. "And one day I will find that Mouldymort guy and kick his ass."

At the last part Sanji chuckled lightly, some things never changed, did they?

"Let's go to bed shitty captain, we're gonna need the rest if we want to survive exams." Sanji informed his captain whilst he stood, intent on climbing into his bed and falling to the clutches of sleep.

Luffy groaned as if in physical pain. "Don't remind me about exams." He said resolutely, climbing up the stairs and flopping into bed, he placed his treasure beside him. "Good night Sanji."

"Night Luffy."

* * *

Luffy hummed 'Binks Sake' as he meandered through the hallways, he was supposed to be getting to potions but he really didn't feel like dealing with his Professor today, he just didn't want to be hated on for an entire period for doing nothing wrong.

His observational Haki alerted him to the whereabouts of his crew mates.

Sanji and Zoro – by far the brightest auras in the school, they were getting even stronger than the old geezer – were making their descent to the dungeons and judging by the flares in annoyance he felt rolling off them told him that they were most likely fighting, again. Ron was trailing after the duo with Hermione who was very unimpressed by their display.

Usopp was in Herbology, he was very happy at the moment. Luffy suddenly halted, frowning at the feel in the air, his defence against the dark arts teacher was very scared right now. He crept up to the classroom Quirrell was residing in.

He sat down cross-legged and listened carefully to the conversation, _something_ hissed at Quirrell, it sure as hell wasn't Snape, it wasn't exactly human and Luffy felt his anger begin to grow. _"Are we ready now?"_

"Yes master." Peculiarly enough the nervous teacher's stutter had completely disappeared. "We will be able to snitch it from the old fool in a week's time."

 _"Good, you have served me well Quirinus."_ The thing hissed, no emotions present in its aura, one that emanated pure evil.

"Thank you master." Quirrell bowed deeply in front of, a mirror?

But what was he doing in front of a mirror? Was the one like Blackbeard _inside_ Quirrell? It didn't make much sense, it must be a mystery.

Satisfied that the presence had a name now, Luffy caught the tail end of the conversation. _"Strike them and I will finally get the revenge I have sought for eleven long years."_

"Yes master." Quirrell said once again, and he started to move, he wound his turban back up and walked out of the room.

In his haste to get to wherever he was going (the bathroom apparently) he didn't even notice the boy sitting cross-legged near his door.

Luffy adjusted his hat and stood, his nakama would want to hear about this latest development.

* * *

They had all reacted to the news in different ways, Sanji and Zoro grimly smiled, no doubt already running through all of the news and deciding which battle attacks would be most suited to the situation.

Usopp pulled out Kabuto and began running through various scenarios in his head and checking to see that he had plenty ammunition stocked up.

Ron looked appalled at the mention of a 'mystery evil presence' as Luffy had dubbed it.

Hermione was adamant that they at least wait until past exams to act. "But Hermione."

"No buts, you might not worry about your career but I do." She said firmly.

"I don't want to have a career," Luffy frowned at her. "I only want to be free."

At his choice of words Hermione had returned his frown, it was impossible to ever be free. There would always be some form of work to diligently work through, she almost opened her mouth to refute his statement but curiously enough Neville shook his head gently.

Luffy sighed and eventually acquiesced to Hermione's demands, it wasn't like he was ever going to use several of the things being tested, he had his nakama for the things he was no good at.

Zoro was his swordsman.

Nami was his navigator.

Usopp was his sniper.

Sanji was his cook.

Chopper was his doctor.

Robin was his archaeologist.

Franky was his shipwright.

Brook was his musician.

Jinbe was his martial artist.

These were facts, no matter what body and what voice they used they would always be his nakama. It was like stating that the sun would rise in the morning – a given.

But, if he had to survive by learning these trivial things then he would, if not for himself then to relieve some of the pressure on his crew's shoulders.

"Fine, that settles it, after exams, we're going to either a. steal that stone thing or b. kick Professor Quirrell's ass!" The crew's reactions were ones of disappointment and relief.

And so they studied extra hard, making sure to keep an eye on Fluffy and Professor Quirrell at all times. Luffy half-expected Fluffy to already be dead, if that professor wanted to then he could probably kill the creature with one quick wave of his wand.

He didn't understand why Quirrell didn't, maybe he was still gathering intel? Maybe he was too scared to face Fluffy without knowing its weakness? Thinking too much hurt Luffy dearly, however, thinking was starting to become easier, maybe because it was like a muscle, Luffy deduced. The more I use it the stronger it gets.

He didn't know why but his nightmares were coming back in full force and as a result he was a lot more tired than usual. Tonight was no different, even as he was surrounded by his nakama in Going Merry, Sanji was cooking up a feast, Zoro training and Usopp was watering his pop greens (with pesticide). As soon as he fell asleep…

 _All around him was the sound of men dying, Whitebeard himself was there, wreaking havoc upon the base that dared to steal his son away._

 _And on top of the execution platform his brother was watching everything in utmost horror. His family, his_ nakama _were dying for him._

 _And then Luffy finally managed to free him, smiling at his only brother, they were going to bring hell to this base._

 _And then… and then… everything._

 _Began_

 _To_

 _Melt._

 _And to Luffy's horror his brother was standing in front of him, protecting him from the force of Akainu's lava fist._

 _No… no… NO! It could not_ would not _end like this. But it did, and Luffy was left with a brother who had his internal organs melted into putty._

"Luffy." The word was spoken in such a reassuring but demanding tone that it pulled him up out of the depths of the dream, no, memory.

He jolted upright, Sanji had returned with the promised dish and had now elected to look in concern at first mate and captain.

Zoro was staring intensely at his captain, his aura was sending out pulses of emotion. _Regret, shame, guilt._

They sat like that for a while, all of the sound fading into a white noise around the Straw Hats.

Said captain was frowning at his hands, hands that were once coated in his brother's blood, the sticky substance sticking to his tan hands. Hands built to protect, not _be_ protected.

Zoro and Sanji said nothing but had sat closely to their captain, usually they were pretty good in managing their night habits but every now and again one would dream of their previous life.

And if they were bad, or even good, they would all meet up at the Going Merry and sit together until all of the emotions associated with the memory would fade away for the most part.

Eventually Luffy stopped his hands from shaking (when did that happen?) and instead looked at his first mate, cook and sniper in sorrow. "Sorry guys, I thought I was getting better. It's been years."

The crew said nothing, instead they formed a protective circle around their captain, leaning back on him to reassure that _yes, they were here._

They slept in a dog pile that night, limbs locking into each other (in Sanji and Zoro's case they fought while they slept), but it resulted in clear dreams for them all.

* * *

Unfortunately, due to exams, the Straw Hats were not able to train as much as they wanted, it would put too much of a strain on their bodies. As it was they were barely able to stay awake during class hours let alone fight for hours on end after midnight.

The teachers attempted to give him a quill that would prevent him from cheating but he had adamantly refused. "No! I can't use a quill, charm my pen if you have to." Luffy looked Professor McGonagall in the eye.

Until the end of time Minerva will never admit that she was quite unnerved by the eyes on Mr Potter. Not just because they were the spitting image of Lily's but because there was so much _depth_ to them, they were soulful. Eventually, she backed down and sighed. "Okay, Professor Flitwick, come here please."

And that settled that, gifted with a new pen that would not allow Luffy to cheat he begun exams.

The actual exams were boring as hell. That was the simplest way to put it. Hours on end sitting in an exam hall and being unable to talk to anyone was pure torture for Luffy. He got hungry about halfway through and resolved to last the hour without sneaking out.

Thankfully, Sanji had caught his captain's train of thought and told him that he would cook him a feast after every exam.

So after Luffy had finished scribbling the answers he would spend the remaining time drooling or sleeping, in both instances he was thinking of eating food.

There were practical exams as well, the short one (Professor Flitwick, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Hermione reminded him) asked him to make a pineapple tap dance across the table.

"Shishishi, it looks just like Mako." Luffy had exclaimed cheerfully, resolutely thinking of only his face and not the memories associated.

He passed that exam with flying colours, he simply had to imagine that it was actually Marco and his wand would do the rest of the work for him. And, he had not uttered a single word, thinking it was enough for his wand.

But, according to Flippitywip it was a big deal, well, the Professor didn't say it aloud but Luffy could read the excitement rolling off of him in great waves. He didn't get the big deal, his wand understood what to do, why did he need to say anything?

Professor McGonagall told them to turn a mouse into a snuffbox and once again Luffy simply told his wand what to do and it obeyed, he did throw in a word that he remembered Hermione ingraining into his head as to throw off suspicion.

He didn't want a repeat of the Flickwit episode.

The mouse, twitching as it lay there, turned into a beautiful box carved from ivory, the patterns brought to life from his imagination, sure he was an awful artist but in his head he could paint and carve.

On top of the box a brightly coloured Jolly Roger with a straw hat atop its head. McGonagall was impressed, not that she would say anything. But her aura was one of content and her little smile gave it all away.

"Can I keep that?" Luffy gestured to the box after McCat had finished inspecting it carefully to check for imperfections.

"Yes." McGonagall replied because she wasn't sure if she could ever say no to the expression on his face.

"Thanks cat lady!" He smiled cheekily at the Professor, pure joy and mirth radiating from his being.

She smiled indulgently, she would let him get away with that nickname just _once._

Making potions with Snape was getting near to the level of hell he undertook in training, however, the training had been _voluntary_ (depending on who you talked about) _._ They were supposed to be making a Forgetfulness potion, not that Luffy could remember (oh the irony), he wasn't supposed to be cooking.

But he grit his teeth and tried to remember at least a _little_ about a Forgetfulness potion.

The final exam, history of magic had everyone nervously twiddling their thumbs, it was unbearably hot and Luffy thought he might melt. _This is the end Zoro, I'm going to melt._

Zoro turned around and gave him a death glare, _stop being so damn melodramatic, that's shitty cook's job._

 _What did you say shitty marimo?_

And then it was an all-out glaring contest, even when they were hastily scrawling down answers they didn't stop insulting each other, well, it was mostly Sanji and Zoro insulting each other. Luffy just casually listened in and internally laughed at the creativeness of their insults.

When they put down their quills Luffy frowned deeply, the castle felt _nervous._ It was tense, waiting for an attack, a quick check saw that Quirrell was still pacing in his office nervously.

Luffy shrugged and made his way outside to sit with his other nakama, they were relaxing in the warmth of the afternoon, laying lazily near the lake. Well, Ron was relaxing, Hermione was stressing about questions that she thought she got wrong.

Sanji left some time ago, undoubtedly to go make his promised fea- dish for his shitty captain. Zoro was napping against one of the trees and Usopp was inventing a tale of princesses and crocodiles.

Luffy sighed contentedly. "I'm glad those stupid exams are over." He smiled at the tentacle monster hidden by the murky depths of the lake.

"Yeah, same here." Ron agreed readily.

Luffy followed his swordsman actions and leant up against the tree, he was quite content just laying here soaking up the rays of heat. Sighing contentedly he melted into the depths of sleep.

He dreamt of being aboard the Thousand Sunny, just being with his nakama. It was more than enough to make him happy.

Eventually Usopp shook Luffy awake, he yawned widely, stretching his arms, hearing them crack loudly.

"Here's your meal shitty captain." Sanji said, setting down one of the levitating carts.

The meal was delicious, nothing less than perfection. Sanji noted that his captain was using his usual gusto and was readily stealing from everyone's plates un-biasedly (sans devil fruit powers of course). The only ones who had some success in warding him off was Sanji and Zoro.

Zoro because he had become way too used to this and Sanji with the threat that he wouldn't feed him meat for a week.

It was later that night when the Straw Hats plus Hermione and Ron were in the common room that Hermione suddenly jumped up, realisation dawning on her face. "What is wrong Hermione?" Sanji asked, twirling around the girl.

"Don't you think that it's odd that a complete stranger would be carrying around a dragon egg, an egg that Hagrid has wanted for a long time?" She asked in a hushed tone.

"Yeah, Hagrid probably got set up." Usopp said calmly, watering a small pot of dangerous plants (unfortunately he was unable to breed the pop greens in his dormitory).

"How are you guys so calm about that?!" Ron asked with a tinge of anger in his voice.

"Because, we set up a super awesome ward thing that will tell us when someone is entering the trap door." Usopp replied hurriedly, thinking of a believable excuse off the bat. "When that happens we'll go stop em."

The common room was beginning to empty when Sanji, Zoro and Luffy perked right up with narrowed eyes. "Usopp, Ron, Hermione, it's happening." Luffy said simply.

Those words were enough to spring them into action. "Let's go to Dumbledore now." Hermione attempted to reason with them.

"No, we're gonna kick his ass!" Luffy exclaimed.

Hermione sighed and shared a look with Ron, there was no way that he was going to back down regardless of the fact that it could most definitely kill him. "Fine, we're coming too."

The walk to the third floor room was as tense as a bow-string, one could most likely cut the tension with a butter knife.

They were all a tad nervous, Usopp had quickly assembled Kabuto and pocketed an impact dial just in case. Zoro had a firm grip on Wado, the white handle reassuring him. Sanji had pulled out a cigarette and was now softly inhaling and exhaling smoke. Hermione and Ron watched the Straw Hats nervously, there was a definite power about them, but they all looked so damn _angry._

Luffy was staring straight ahead, one hand atop his head, clenching his precious Straw Hat. He was going to come face to face with the man who had mercilessly killed two people and was trying to steal that Flame guy's treasure, there was no way in hell he was going to simply _let that go._

 _If you're not already following these two reincarnation stories then I recommend you go right away and binge the hell out of em; 'Be Sunny and Make Merry' by Anonymous Howler and 'A Box of Matches for a New Life' by fingers-falling-upwards. They're both HPXOP reincarnation fics and personally my favs. Ohcheh, soooo, tell me what you thought and ciao for now!_


	10. Chapter 10

_This is the final chapter of the first book of Carnate Thingy. I hope y'all enjoy, also, please read the A/N at the bottom._

The walk was filled with silence, the only one who dared to hinder their path was Peeves who Luffy levelled with a glare. "Get out of our way." He growled at the poltergeist.

Said poltergeist turned tail and fled at the anger in his expression, "I'm so sorry." He stuttered as he flew away, Peeves had never seen someone so, what was the word? Determined perhaps? Well, whatever it was made his shiver in anticipation and feel just the slightest piece of sympathy for those on the receiving end of that glare – himself included.

Now that there was no-one left to stop them from reaching their destination. They reached the door, Luffy, not one for words simply pointed his wand at the door, causing it to immediately open for him.

Hermione and Ron were left gaping at that display of power, how was he able to use wordless magic like that? They weren't supposed to learn that until at least year seven and even then most accomplished wizards had difficulty in using wordless spells. How was it that an eleven-year-old, _muggle-born_ knew how to use such a power?

Inside the room Fluffy was sleeping while a harp played softly. "Huh, so that's its' weakness." Sanji commented, lighting another cigarette to the disgust of Ron and Hermione.

Ron and Hermione were simply in a state of shock, these people. Who are they? They sure as hell weren't like anyone they had met thus far.

Luffy pouted for a few seconds. "But I wanted to say hello to Fluffy." He cried, frowning deeply at the harp that was playing of its' own accord.

"It's okay Harry, we can talk to him later." Usopp said placatingly, there was no way he wanted to face a three headed dog once again (even if the other one actually had a fox head and was an amalgamation made by an insane doctor/scientist).

"I think Harry might get his chance to talk to Fluffy." Zoro pointed at the harp that had ceased in its gentle playing.

The first dammit of the night was uttered by Usopp, triggered by the beast awakening from its peaceful slumber.

It stretched muscular joints, allowing Usopp to spy how big the creature actually was. It yawned widely and finally noticed them. "Hey! Hey! So your name's Fufu huh? And here I was calling you San." Their captain scratched his head. "Oh well, you'll always be San to me."

Fluffy took one look at their captain before lowering itself to the ground in a submissive posture. "Good boy! Now, you did your best right?" He asked the three-headed dog, smiling widely at it.

Some form of sound that sounded suspiciously like a whine escaped all three of its' heads and Luffy nodded in understanding. "It's not your fault, but, you can't let anyone else past here aside from us alright?"

The heads nodded an affirmative in sync. "Yosh! Let's go guys!"

And Luffy jumped down the trapdoor without a second thought. Thus the cause of Usopp's second dammit of the night (and undoubtedly not the last).

Zoro followed next, the ever faithful swordsman. Sanji jumped in after him, muttering about stupid moss-heads beating him. Usopp made sure that Hermione and Ron jumped in first before landing on a weirdly soft, squishy surface.

Said soft, squishy surface began to coil around them, Luffy looked at it with a calm expression on his face, he could probably force whatever this thing was into submission but he realised he had probably already terrified the two non-Straw Hats enough for the night. Zoro and Sanji also adopted nonchalant expressions, they were monsters in their own right so they probably thought that the plant was nothing more than a minor nuisance.

So Usopp took the lead in being scared enough for the monster trio and himself combined, thus the third dammit of the night. "Gah! Do you guys have any idea what this thing is?" He asked rhetorically, not really expecting them to answer.

"This is devil's snare." Hermione said frowning as she experimentally wiggled her arm, only to have the vine tighten.

"Devil's snare?" Usopp remembered clearly that entry, he actually wanted to try it out in one of his new attacks. "Oh yeah, the ones that don't like light or fire."

"Yes, yes it doesn't Neville." Hermione looked surprised at the level of knowledge he had expressed, she hadn't really expected much of a Hufflepuff in terms of brain power, but then again Neville was quite adept at Herbology from what she could gather from the lessons they shared together.

"Fire?" Sanji asked, already running through whether or not he would be able to light his leg on fire.

"Fire?" Luffy repeated, he didn't doubt that Usopp had it covered if it was fire, after all he had quite an impressive arsenal.

He was saved from answering in the form of Usopp and Sanji, Sanji lit up his leg shouting 'Hell memories!', effectively burning away the half that had ensnared the monster trio.

Usopp burned the other half away with one of his fire bird stars. Ron and Hermione's fall was stopped by their captain who was able to take the hits from the floor with a practised ease. "Is everyone okay?" Usopp asked needlessly.

After a round of affirmative they moved away. Walking through the passageway Luffy stopped and frowned, he turned to Zoro and Sanji. "Do you guys feel that?"

Quirrell had reached a room with, what were they? Chess pieces? Wherever he was it was becoming dangerously close to the final room where the mystery stone was undoubtedly hidden.

(Not that they could actually tell where the stone was, the stone seemed to be hidden beyond their own senses.)

Zoro and Sanji grimaced, Usopp looked between the trio and without words, knew that it was getting borderline desperate. He had no doubt that his captain could kick the ass of all collective criminals in this world without a doubt but Voldemort was a lot stronger than the usual run-of-the-mill witches and wizards.

But even so, the people of this world were so much weaker so maybe Voldemort wasn't as badass as he had been made out to be.

He did inspire fear in the heart of the world by using a collection of dark magics, bat-shit crazy followers and powerful creatures.

And if he had the power of the sorcerer's stone then it might _might_ be a close call of a win.

Luffy frowned deeply, he couldn't find the stone thingy but he had found something else. That stupid mirror he had found and Dumbledore had warned him away from was in the final room.

But, ahead of them was a room of keys with wings?

They fluttered around, seemingly innocent. "They'll attack us if we cross the room." Zoro commented, looking disinterested at the keys flying around the room, fitted with wings made of various shades of colours. "Captain, let me handle this."

At Luffy's nod he leapt up into the air and in one fluid movement brought out Shusui and with a single slice, incapacitated all of the keys, their ruined wings fluttered in vain to keep their owners afloat.

Hermione and Ron gasped loudly at the obvious display of power, how in the hell was an eleven-year-old able to effortlessly handle a sword like that? Why did he have another two? Were they simply backup?

The keys landed on the ground with loud clanking noises that resonated through the room. "It's this one." Zoro handed his captain one of the larger keys that slid into the old fashioned key hole comfortably.

Luffy smiled dangerously. "He just finished the room." He whispered to Usopp before pushing open the door, Hermione and Ron winced at the loud creaking noise, it cut through the silence like a siren in an utterly silent night.

The next room was extremely dark, neither Hermione, Ron nor Usopp could see anything in the all-consuming darkness. But, as they stepped into the room, light flooded the room, revealing a large…

Chessboard?

Luffy strode across the board to the pawns on the other side. They crossed their weapons threateningly at the Straw Hat boy, "Move." He growled at them, immensely surprised when they did not heed his command.

"It looks like we have to play to make it across." Ron commented, inspecting the pieces carefully. "Harry, you're better than me, you can play."

Luffy took a deep breath, he would entertain Ron's wishes. "Okay, Zoro, go be my castle, Sanji and Ron, my knights, Usopp, my bishop and Hermione, my queen. I'll be the king."

Everyone nodded their affirmatives and moved to their positions.

The following game was intense as both sides suffered losses from their forces, thankfully Luffy was able to pull his nakama out of tight positions as to not allow them to be hit. The opposition had no such qualms and thus had more casualties. Despite their lack of players, the animated objects were steadily gaining headway despite Luffy's best efforts.

Dammit, he had once commanded a _fleet_ at some stage when they had led the attack against _him._ Sure his nakama had all helped him along the way but he knew what had to be done to win so _why was it that the quickest way to win was to sacrifice one of his_ living _nakama._

Ergo, Luffy was frowning in Ron's direction, he knew what had to be done but he could not bear the thought of sacrificing his nakama for him.

"Harry, it's okay, it's the only way we can win." Ron said from his position atop his knight, he was watching the board with calculating eyes, sweeping across to look for weaknesses, he had been watching Harry's moves and realised what his problem was – he wasn't willing to sacrifice some of the living.

The move he was talking about would incapacitate Ron from the game and allow Usopp to bring the king into checkmate. "But-"

"There's no buts." Ron snapped. "Sacrifices have to be made during chess, now, do you want to stop Quirrell or not?"

Luffy shakily nodded, he could not _would not_ remember similar words spoken. Forcefully he dragged himself into the present game. Ron would not die from an attack of this calibre, that he was (had to be) certain of. "Usopp! When it's checkmate I want you to take Ron to Madam Pomfrey."

Usopp nodded his assent, he realised what a move like this could do to his captain's mentality, while they had spoken of it a few times, their captain still blamed himself for their deaths (executions). Later on it would be time to go back to the mystery room and reassure their captain, but for now, he had an order.

Ron took a step forward and the queen immediately smashed into him with a sickening crunch, Ron was tossed to the side with ease. Hermione looked ready to rush to his side but Luffy shouted. "No! Finish the game!"

And so they did, and as soon as the king threw down his crown Usopp rushed to their fallen comrade and hauled him onto his back. "I gotcha Ron."

Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Hermione raced into the next room and Usopp ran back through the other rooms, "Hang on buddy."

* * *

Zoro observed his captain in silence, Luffy was frowning and while his aura was harshly supressed the guilt he felt was rolling off of him in waves. Zoro saw that look in his eyes, it was one that he had adopted for a short while after they had reunited, it was a look that should not be in his child-like, abnormally happy captain.

He knew that nosebleed and Usopp had seen it too, it was why Usopp had taken Ron without complaint and why during their trip curly-brows had only made half-hearted insults his way. Zoro frowned and laid a single hand on Wado, he wished more than anything that he could simply cut away his captains guilt.

But, for now, they will soldier on into the depths of the night and defeat whatever enemy that crazy old geezer threw at them.

(Later they would dine and undoubtedly drink together in Merry. And all would be forgotten for the time being.)

The room they were currently in had nothing but a table with potions, Hermione was reading the riddle left for them on a scrap piece of paper.

Sanji was also huddled around her, something about potions being his forte.

The entry to the final room was blocked by fire – unnatural fire and so was their exit. Luffy watched Hermione mutter to herself and look at the mismatched vials of potion with precision. "I think this is the right one." She finally said, picking up the smallest vial.

Sanji watched on in mild interest, he had no doubt about Hermione's abilities, she was no Robin-chan or Chopper but her intelligence was incredible. Overall, that was the only vial he would be willing to stake his captain's life on.

As Luffy went to pull it out of her hands she snatched her hand back. "I'm pretty sure." She frowned at the vial and parchment in turn.

Luffy reached again, this time smiling his smile that was guaranteed to make anyone feel confident in their latest activity. "I trust you Hermione."

She blushed at his faith. "There's only enough here for one to get though the black flames, and just enough to get back to safety."

"Zoro, Sanji, can either of you make it through the fire?" Luffy asked, looking inquisitively at first mate and cook.

What he really seemed to be asking (at least to the Mugiwara) was who was going to come and who was going to stay behind. "I can." Zoro said finally, after a heated mute battle with Sanji.

(Yes shitty-cook, I am stronger, stay with Hermione.)

(I'm going to fry your brains and make something useful out of you broccoli head.

…

But I will stay, take care of him.)

"Ok, Sanji, I want you and Hermione to go back through the fire and go see that old geezer." Luffy smiled widely at the duo and they couldn't help but smile back.

But Hermione's bottom lip still trembled with worry. "Harry!" She shouted and threw her arms around him, squeezing the rubber man tightly.

"Hey Hermione, it'll be alright." Luffy said softly, smiling gently at the girl as he pried her off of him.

He pulled off his straw hat and placed it on her head. "Now you keep good care of that for me while I'm gone."

She gripped the brim tightly, she didn't exactly understand it but she knew that this hat was one of his treasures, and a promise.

(Not that she knew that there were countless other promises laid upon that hat.)

"Be careful." Were the last words she uttered to Seamus Finnigan and Harry Potter, two terrifying and amazing eleven year olds that she was able to call her friends.

Luffy and Zoro smiled at her words, oh, they would be careful, careful to avoid allowing the disgusting creature to live.

And with one fluid movement Luffy swallowed the contents of the vial and, without further ado, leapt through the fire with a determination to contest even the hottest fires of hell.

Zoro followed not a second later, slicing at the fire, blades as black as the flames, imbued with Haki to prevent him from being burned.

Luffy was standing just on the other side of the flames inside the final chamber, there, in front of an odd looking mirror was Professor Quirrell.

"I was right." Luffy murmured to first mate.

"I never doubted you."

Quirrell gazed at them with a look of indifference, the man was overconfident in his ability to take down two ordinary eleven year olds.

Well, he should be, but, unfortunately for him the duo in front of him were anything but ordinary children.

They were battle hardened warriors. One a king and the other, willing to sacrifice everything for the first.

They would not relent until victory was in their grasp.

"Potter, I wondered if I was going to see you here tonight. I didn't expect you to bring along a little friend." Quirrell suddenly frowned, if only just realising the implications that there were _two_ of them, how exactly had they managed to share the potion between them?

He shook his head, probably some dumb luck, it was not of importance. He had a job to do and would not be swayed, he would get his hands dirty for his one and only master. "Neither of you seem particularly surprised." He commented.

"That's because we knew." Luffy said simply, rage was starting to fill him, that _thing_ was in the room and never before had he had a stronger reaction to the presence before.

It was like Mother Nature herself was calling to the boy, willing him to destroy the abomination before him.

"But how, I made it all look like it was Severus' plot, I even made sure to play the p-p-poor st-stuttering Professor Quirrell." Quirrell was looking at them in annoyance, if they had figured it out then how many others had?

"Are you the one who killed Lili and James?" Luffy asked, eyes locked onto the _thing_ atop his professor.

"Me?" Quirrell looked confused but laughed heartily. "What a misguided no-."

"I wasn't talking to you." Luffy cut him off. "I was talking to the _thing_ on your head."

Zoro stood stock still, taking in the situation laid before him. In the worst case scenario, they both die at the hand of this teacher, broken into pieces by whatever spells the teacher can concoct. Something told Zoro that there was no way in hell that that scenario would play out.

Best case scenario they kick his ass and haul it back to the headmaster's office and get stuck being interrogated on how the hell they managed to bypass their security and manage to defeat an insane teacher and the Dark Lord.

Both scenarios didn't really matter to Zoro as long as his captain lived. He was unable to live without him, sure he had survived eleven years' worth of it but it was something he wished to never repeat, his family were pretty decent but they were no Straw Hat crew.

He had achieved both of his dreams in their previous life but recently he had made himself another promise.

He would protect his captain at all costs and make him free as many times as he was able to.

He was brought back to the present dilemma by the sound of Quirrell's monologue ending (thank Gan Fall, why do villains feel the need to monologue so much?) and Luffy looking more pissed off then when he had entered the room.

Suddenly Luffy's stance changed and he _glared_ at him. A single, incredibly strong wave of Conqueror's Haki rolled across the room and, as soon as it touched the _thing_ and teacher, Quirrell's eyes rolled into the back of his head and yet he did not fall for a few seconds, if through that thing on his head or sheer will-power, neither would know as Quirrell and the thing were silenced in one felled swoop.

Quirrell dropped to the unforgiving floor like a marionette that had its strings cut. "We can't kill it." Luffy frowned at his ex-professor's body. "His soul, it…"

"Yeah."

Luffy sat in front of the mirror, legs crossed tightly. This would be the _very_ last time he would see the mirror.

There! In the mirror, the real Luffy smiled cheekily and waved at them both before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a ruby coloured gem, he placed it back in his pocket and Luffy was surprised to feel a weight settle in his pocket. He glanced down to his pocket in surprise.

He pulled it out in confusion, how the hell had it appeared in there?

"Oi, Luffy, is that it?" Zoro looked at the stone carefully, it didn't seem like much appearance wise but one had to be an idiot to not feel the undeniable power radiating from the unassuming object.

Luffy turned the stone over in his hand carefully. "Yeah, I think it is."

"What the…?" Zoro's face turned ashen, he seemed to just really _notice_ , there, in the mirror, he was standing behind his captain, _his captain_ wearing his usual green robe, adorned with the usual scars. It was quite odd to look in a mirror with both eyes and see one closed up.

But, that was not the worst part, no, the worst part was the fact that they were surrounded by those long dead. Sunny, his nakama, _Kuina,_ even Mihawk and Perona made an appearance.

"Oh, the mirror…" Luffy sounded quite downtrodden to Zoro's ears.

"You've seen it before." It wasn't a question but Luffy nodded and affirmative anyway.

"Since the beginning of Quidditch season."

Zoro really wasn't as surprised as he should have been at the information that his captain had kept this mirror a secret.

His captain didn't need to say anything, they simply stood and sat in their places in front of the mirror, drinking in the faces of their nakama. Drinking in their _own_ faces. Finally, Luffy sighed and stood up.

"We should probably get going." He went to grab Quirrell's robe to drag him along but he accidentally touched his face with his hand.

Quirrell's face _crumbled_. He hadn't even risen from his Haki induced coma, but even so he started to scream at an inhumanly high pitch as his entire being began to crack out of existence.

Luffy jumped back from the body, startled, he didn't do anything so why was this happening? Quirrell moaned as more of his body cracked, it became as dry as a desert and began to completely crumble away.

It didn't take long for his entire body to turn to dust, but, the thing lingered in the room, it writhed in agony, determined to not let this be its demise. It screamed and flew straight at a frozen Luffy, it curled this way and that like smoke and passed straight through Luffy's body.

Luffy, had not moved an inch, he was morbidly fascinated by the severed soul. As soon as it came out the other side Luffy felt an incomprehensible darkness form in his vision, he heard Zoro scream his name, and then…

And then he knew no more.

* * *

"That damned fool!" Hey, that sounds like Sanji, was it already time for breakfast?

"He shouldn't be so reckless." Usopp spoke much softer and with a hint of timidness.

Luffy tried to rise out of the darkness he was residing in, his nakama…

He had to see his nakama!

But, try as he might, he couldn't seem to drag himself out of the oppressing waves of nothing.

When he finally awoke it was to see blue eyes staring at him intently through a pair of golden glasses. He looked cautiously at the Headmaster, obviously he had made it out of the room and been taken somewhere else. "Where is Zoro? How about Ron?" It was partly a rhetorical question, he had already located Zoro but he had yet to find Ron, where was he?

Lines of confusion appeared briefly on Dumbledore's face before he gently smiled. "Ah yes, Mr Finnigan, he is just over there." He pointed to a chair next to Luffy's bed where Zoro was currently snoozing, hands resting on his katanas. "And Mr Weasley is still sleeping."

"Really?"

"Yes, something is happening to him, Madam Pomfrey doesn't quite know what is wrong with him, it is beyond her knowledge apparently." Dumbledore was once more astounded by the concern that permeated the young boys features, he really cared about them.

But, eventually, the worry faded and he adopted an expression that portrayed his hunger.

"Old man, do you have any meat?" Luffy asked, he really was hungry.

"No, but your friends seem to have left you some and there are tokens from your admirers." He gestured at the pile of meat and sweets.

Luffy immediately dug into them, stuffing his face to the brim. Swallowing, he sighed in contentment, "That's much better."

Dumbledore chuckled lightly at his antics. "What happened down in the dungeons between you, your friends and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so naturally the whole school knows. I believe your friends Misters Fred and George Weasley were responsible for trying to send you a lavatory seat. No doubt they thought it would amuse you. Madam Pomfrey, however, felt it might not be very hygienic, and confiscated it."

"Shishishi. They tried to send me a toilet seat?" Luffy managed to say between laughs, that was great, he would have loved to see Madame Promfrell's face when she confiscated it.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"Three days." Dumbledore would have continued if not for a very panicked exclamation.

"Three days?! That means I missed fifteen meals!" Luffy wailed in despair.

"Oi, keep it down would ya?" Zoro awoke.

"Zoro!" Harry turned straight from panicky to relieved in the span of a second when he noticed his friend, it amazed Dumbledore to the highest level. "Hey, old man, what happened to the stone?"

"It has been destroyed." He said, amused at his nickname.

"Destroyed? But wasn't it that _really_ old guy's treasure?" He asked, confused.

"Oh! You know of Nicolas Flamel?" Dumbledore sounded positively delighted by that fact. "You _did_ research properly. Well, Nicolas and I agreed that it was for the best."

"Hmmm, that means he and his wife will die doesn't it?"

"They have enough elixir stored to set their affairs in order and then, yes, they will die."

"Huh, well they have been alive for a very long time, they would have been able to go on lots of adventures but it also means that they wouldn't be able to keep their nakama alive." Dumbledore was shocked at the wise words spoken by the seemingly absent-minded boy.

"Indeed, you are quite right Harry."

Luffy sighed loudly. "That Voldywarts guy is gonna try and come back using different methods, isn't he old man?"

"Yes, he never truly left."

"I see. In that case, when the day comes, I'm gonna kick his ass!" He proclaimed loudly, Harry's friend beside him didn't flinch, instead he seemed prepared to take on any who dared attack Harry.

My my, what a strange collection of friends. Dumbledore thought to himself, they were quite knowledgeable, strong and courageous, all traits required to defeat Voldemort himself. He would tell Harry sometime about what he must do to defeat that man, but today was not that day – it was too early.

"Can I see Ron now?" Luffy asked.

"Of course, however, you must do so on one condition." Luffy nodded eagerly for him to continue, "You allow me to accompany you."

"Of course! Let's go!" There was no hesitation evident, he would do anything to see nakama.

They approached one of the beds with curtains drawn tightly around them. "Oi, Ron. You there?" Luffy pulled back the curtain to the sight of their orange haired friend lying on his bed looking pale.

The most noticeable difference was a large scar almost running the entire length of his forehead. Albus frowned internally, – outside he was as stoic as always – a knock on the head from a stone chess-piece should not have been able to do that to an eleven-year-old child.

But, apparently it meant something to Seamus and Harry if their collective gasps were to go anything by. Then they both smiled widely and promptly left the bed together. "Shishishi, looks like we found our musician."

"Yeah, the pervert's been gone long enough too."

These words confused the Headmaster greatly, who was it that they were talking about? Surely not their friend on the bed. It simply was another mystery added to the pile of things he would never understand about Harry Potter and his odd bunch of friends.

"I'll take my leave now Harry, do get better." And with that he walked out of the wing, cloak flying leisurely out behind him.

"What are you doing out of bed?" The matron, Madam Pomfrey asked sternly, descending on them like a true demon from hell.

"I wanted to see Ron." Came his reply.

"Get in bed now! You're lucky I'm letting in that one." She pointed at Zoro. "The only reason he is here is because he absolutely refused. You need rest, not friends."

"I need meat; I'll feel better with a lot of meat." Luffy assured her.

Madam Pomfrey sighed and pinched her nose. "If I send in your friends will you get back in bed?"

"Sure." And so he did and after that the matron allowed Sanji, Usopp and Hermione to race into the room.

The matron sighed in exasperation, those kids were insane, taking on the Dark Lord by themselves and coming out on top. They were far too reckless for her taste and she had no doubt that this would not be the last time they attempted something like this again.

That boy was a lot like his father in that aspect and they shared the same looks but that was where the similarities ended.

Physically, there was nothing wrong with him but mentally, dear god help them. When Poppy had created an astral projection of his mental state she had to refrain from screaming, there were tears in his soul that would only be healed by time.

And the Dark Lord, he had tried his damnest to try and kill him by passing through his own body. It was a terrifying sight to behold to say the least. She had half a mind to immediately get him on anti-depressants but when that Seamus fellow had entered the wing he had lit up in joy.

And even now, she could see the unrestrained _joy_ on his face at the sight of his friends. That kid must have seen hell to be that damaged, but how?

Either way, she was going to have to report his damage to the Headmaster and recommend a course of action.

* * *

Hermione was still wearing his hat and seemed ready to hug him again but refrained after realising just where he was.

"You moron." Sanji said affectionately, chewing on a toothpick and raking his eyes over his captain's body for the major injuries.

(None, apparently it was all mental.)

"The whole school's talking about it." Usopp commented, looking eagerly at his friend. "And I didn't even say anything, what actually happened?"

So Luffy explained and Zoro translated when Luffy messed up. "And then I knocked them out-."

"How did you knock them out?" Hermione interrupted, looking quite confused.

"With Conquerors Haki." Luffy said like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Conqueror's Haki?" Hermione asked confusedly, she had never heard of such magic, she would be sure to look up its origin later on in the library.

"So what happened to you all after I sent you back?" Luffy asked.

"I hightailed it out of there with Ron and we somehow made it back to the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey doesn't know what's wrong with him, he should have woken up by now." Usopp explained grinning. "But, he has a new scar on his forehead and his body is trying its hardest to grow an afro, but to no avail it seems."

The Straw Hats shared looks before laughing. "He wouldn't be Brook without it, although." Luffy started. "It's gonna be weird seeming him in the flesh." Then he pouted. "No more skull jokes."

"No more skull jokes." Usopp repeated glumly whilst Hermione looked at them in wonder.

What in god's name were they talking about? An afro and scar? No more skull jokes? It just didn't make sense.

"Well, I took Mademoiselle here back to the owlery after discovering that Dumbledore wasn't even in the castle." Sanji explained, picking up from where Usopp had left. "We went to the Great Hall and there he was, the only thing he said was 'Harry's gone after him, hasn't he?' and then he was gone, presumably to the third floor where he met the stupid swordsman carrying Luffy."

"Tch, as if someone like that could take us down." Zoro grinned just a tad maniacally, he seemed to have ignored Sanji's nicknames for the time being.

"Oi, Luffy, there's a feast on tomorrow night. I will be creating delectable dishes alongside the house elves." Sanji added.

"There's going to be a feast?!" A pool of drool appeared under Luffy as he imagined all of the tasty foods he would be able to eat.

"Yeah, and Gryffindor and Slytherin are tying now for house points but Ravenclaw kicked Gryffindor's asses in Quidditch without you." Usopp added.

"We still get to have the feast right?!" Luffy would be very upset if he couldn't make up for the fifteen meals he had already missed.

"Yeah, everyone does." Sanji said, smiling at his captain.

"Oh thank goodness."

Everyone laughed at his antics, including Luffy.

At that moment Madam Pomfrey bustled over to their group. "It's been half an hour already, now, all of you, OUT. That includes you too Mr Finnigan."

Zoro opened his mouth to protest but stopped from the look his captain sent him, _everything is fine now, I'll see you tomorrow._

"Very well."

And they filed out leaving Luffy alone with one surprised Madam Pomfrey.

He left just like that?

"Hey, Promfare lady, when can I leave? I feel fine."

"My name is Madam _Pomfrey_ and not until I say so." She said sternly, he probably could leave now and be fine, so long as he was with his friends but she didn't want to take the chance. Tomorrow, she decided, tomorrow she would let Dumbledore know about his mental state, until then she would observe him overnight.

"But I'm fine." His voice rose to a whine and Poppy had to refrain from hitting the boy over the head.

"You can leave tomorrow, in time for the feast." She acquiesced.

"Yay!" And there, his impossibly wide smile graced his features.

* * *

It was midnight when Luffy finally drifted off into the warm clutches of sleep, he really didn't want to sleep by himself but, he reminded himself, firstly he needed sleep to be allowed out of this place and secondly Brook was just over there if things got really bad.

So, he slept and dreamt of a time where pirates roamed the five seas in search of the greatest treasure of all time.

They achieved their dreams and Luffy became the Pirate King, but there was an uproar in society. Especially coming from the Fleet Admiral Akainu, he wanted the Pirate King executed, and so his desire became a reality.

The scene in his head swam from a gorgeous night in a palace to that of the execution block, they were dying, his nakama.

And there was nothing he could do to stop it. Brook was long dead, burned then melted into a pool of calcium. There were not even bones to bury.

His crew, his nakama, they died after achieving their goals, that was the only reason why Monkey D. Luffy could smile in his last moments.

But here and now he did not smile, instead, he cried out for the pain of losing his friends was too great, after all, being alone hurt much more than Death itself.

"No! Don't leave yet! Come back!" He shouted with all of his might at the dead bodies of those he cared about most.

"Luffy, you did this to us!" Nami shouted, swords still piercing her shoulders, yet she drew breath to blame her captain.

"If you weren't so _weak_ we would be living!" Zoro shouted, glaring at the only one he would ever call captain.

"I'm sorry guys." He whispered, trying to shut his eyes in his nightmare, but alas, they would not close and he was stuck seeing them hurl insults and blame at him.

"Luffy-san!" The voice was far off but it definitely wasn't part of the dream.

"Luffy-san, you need to wake up, yohohoho!" There it was again, Luffy held onto the voice like it was a lifeline and dragged himself out of his nightmare realm.

There, in the hospital wing he was greeted with the face of his eighth nakama, well, not his face, per say but the face of Ronald Weasley.

And that matron lady was also with him, peering at him with unrestrained concern. "Move." She said to Ron.

"Wait! Brook!" And then the newly reborn swordsman and musician found himself with an armful of his captain.

"Yes, Luffy-san, it is me, yohohohoho!"

Madam Pomfrey looked on in concern, neither of those boys were alright, after all, Harry Potter had obviously been having a nightmare, a severe one at that, one that caused him to moan in pain and scratch at his chest? And Ronald Weasley, it was like he was an entirely different person.

What was with his odd laugh? And why was Potter calling him Brook? But, looking at them hugging she noticed that Potter was a lot more relaxed now, he might be sobbing openly but his friend was comforting him.

She sighed, she was going to need to concoct a brew for dreamless sleeping time for him. Poppy resolved to speak to Dumbledore first thing in the morning. But for now, she expanded the bed Potter was on and shepherded the pair of them onto it, she didn't fully understand the deepness of the bond they shared but apparently having one of his friends nearby helped.

Who was she to question such a method? Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

* * *

The sun was finally beginning to rise and with it came the two boys whose limbs were tangled together. Madam Pomfrey had, as she had promised herself, left the wing and headed toward the Headmaster's office.

"Brook." Luffy sighed in contentment, listening to his nakama's strong heartbeat thump away in his chest.

Brook was finally sleeping after spending hours comforting his captain, after all, that was his job and Luffy had had a particularly nasty nightmare judging by the tear tracks staining his face.

So Brook had hummed the most soothing songs he knew and had eventually resorted to one that would be certain to send anyone off into the grips of sleep.

He sighed, he now knew who was here and who was missing. It became painfully obvious after he awoke, the nicknames thrown at each other between a curly browed boy and another sandy haired boy with three katana. The sharpshooting skills obvious from a boy who was a liar. And the straw hat atop his captain's head.

It was all a relief to know he was not alone, apparently he had not been alone for the entirety of his new life as well. Their navigator was his little sister, what a thought! It _did_ mean that he had seen her panties multiple times, oh how jealous Sanji would be!

Brook woke from his dreamless sleep to a startling loud growl emitting from his own stomach, that was another dilemma; he finally had a flesh and blood body after so long. It was a jolting experience to say the least.

But, he remembered his time as Ron and surmised that it would not be so difficult to relearn everything once more. And besides, as a skeleton he had still eaten food and excreted it, it shouldn't be that hard with flesh and blood.

Right?

As of now he really needed to relieve his bladder, but his captain was holding on tight. "Luffy."

"Yeah?"

"I really need to use the bathroom."

His captain chuckled, voice husky from sleep, and disentangled himself from his musician.

Once Brook relieved himself (thank god he knew how to) Luffy smiled widely at him. "Let's go eat!"

"Wait! I have something I must tell you." He cried, remembering his sibling, at Luffy's nod he continued. "Nami-san is my sister Ginny."

"Really?" He exclaimed, imagining his navigator as Ron's sister. "What's it like with her as a sister?"

"Oh goodness it's terrifying, thankfully she doesn't charge us but she is quite scary yohohohoho."

Luffy laughed, a hearty one that conveyed all of his emotion. "She's coming to Hogwarts too right?"

"I'd assume so, she will be next year." Brook said. "She's still the same Nami-san we all knew."

Luffy smiled broadly, he had found two nakama in a single night!

"Let's go eat now then!"

"But when did the Madam Pomfrey say we could go?" Brook asked.

"She said tomorrow yesterday which means we can go!" Luffy explained.

"Ok, then, let's go."

When they arrived at the hall it was to discover that it wasn't even open for breakfast yet. "Naww, but I wanted to catch up on my eighteen meals."

"Eighteen?"

"Yep, I only had three meals yesterday and I was out for five days, that means I missed eighteen meals."

"My my, you're quite quick at calculating that yohohohoho!"

"'arry? Is that yer?" A bulking figure appeared in their line of sight, "Ron too?"

"Hagrid!" And Hagrid found himself being hugged by Harry, who had quite the grip mind you.

Hagrid promptly burst into tears from where he had been captured. "It's all my ruddy fault!" He cried. "I told the evil git how ter get past Fluffy! I told-!"

He was cut off by Luffy bonking him on the head, _hard._ "Why'd yer hit me?" He asked, rubbing his head where an egg was undoubtedly growing.

"You were hysterical." Luffy said simply, he frowned at the half-giant. "It wasn't your fault Hagrid, you didn't know what he was planning to do, and besides. We made it out safely."

He blinded Hagrid with his grin, Hagrid was taken aback by his smile and stopped crying. "I guess yer right 'arry." He muttered and was rewarded by a shishishi!

"Anyway, I got somethin' for yer." Hagrid said, prying the boy off of him to reach into his coat pocket. "Dumbledore gave me the day off yesterday ter fix it."

He pulled out a leather-bound book. Luffy opened it eagerly, inside it was filled with wizard photographs. Waving and smiling at him from every page were Lily and James, they were accompanied by what he assumed to be old school friends.

"Sent owls off ter all yer parents' ole school friends, askin' fer photos…" Hagrid confirmed Luffy's suspicion. "Knew yeh didn' have any, so d'yeh like it?"

Luffy gave his reply in the form of another toothy smile. "I love it Hagrid! Thanks!"

Just because they weren't his real parents doesn't mean he was going to forget about them, they had given their lives up to protect him after all.

At that moment the doors opened to the Great Hall and Luffy abruptly raced inside with a cry of "Food!"

Brook followed at a much more leisurely pace, striding into his place beside his nakama. Luffy had already tucked into a plate piled high with sausages, bacon, basically any meat he could find.

Food went flying everywhere and all the students that filed in sleepily took one look at Luffy and went to their usual places.

Another sign that people were getting used to the abnormality that was Harry Potter. But they did pause for a second at the sight of a new scar adorning his red-haired friend who was also eating with no manners.

"Luffy." Zoro sidled in next to his captain, he usually got up this early to train and figured that his captain was here.

"Zoro's here." He exclaimed through a mouthful of bacon and toast.

"Hello Zoro." Brook said, swallowing scrambled egg and managed to get it all over himself and his unfortunate clothes.

"Brook." Zoro tipped his head, sipping some sake from his flask.

"Brook!" Usopp shouted, racing into the room from his place in the doorway.

"Hello Usopp, it has been a while."

"That it has been." Usopp plonked himself down next to Brook and begun eating at a much more sedate pace compared to the two beside him.

"Hey morons, seaweed head." Sanji swooped in next to Zoro, beginning a fight.

Luffy smiled through his food, this was almost perfect, if he had the rest of his crew then it would be perfect.

By now most of the school had filtered in and were alternating between staring at Luffy and whispering to their friends.

"Ugh, do they ever shut up?" A very annoyed Hermione made her way over to their group, sitting next to Usopp, the 'they' in question was the entire school.

Some were standing up from their tables to get a good look at Luffy and were beginning to talk much louder.

"Mornin' 'mione." Luffy swallowed, creating an obvious lump in his throat and smiled brightly at the witch.

"Good morning Harry, hello to you as well Ron." She probably would have hugged Ron if not for the fact that he was eating almost to the calibre of disgustingness that Harry ate at.

"Ahh, good morning Hermione." Brook replied, still in the process of scarfing down his breakfast.

Luffy's stomach was beginning to distend, giving him the appearance of being pregnant, well, he looked pregnant until 'Life Return' was performed and the consumed food was converted into his muscles.

Thankfully, no-one had noticed his stomach expanding and shrinking, that situation would have been quite embarrassing.

Finally breakfast was over and the entire student populous trudged reluctantly to class, "Shall we, sencho-san?"

"Yosh, let's go." Luffy replied with his usual exuberance.

"You two might want to get changed then." Hermione pointed out their hospital clothes.

"You're right Hermione, let's go get changed first Brook."

And so they did, arriving forty minutes late to class because Luffy wasn't following the dress-code.

("No Luffy, you cannot wear your muggle clothes to class, you'll be lucky if they let you wear your sandals.")

Unluckily for the two wayward Gryffindors, they had a period of potions that morning. When they finally rocked up Professor Snape was beyond furious, "Ah our latest celebrities finally make their appearances, where were you two?" The question was as sharp as one of Zoro's katana.

"Getting changed sir, sorry that we are late." Brook said politely because he knows his captain will be anything but polite.

"Forty points deducted for your tardiness." He sneered at the two of them.

"Why do you hate me?" Luffy asks, because he is blunt and knows nothing of tact.

"Get to your seat Potter, you too Weasley." And Snape is slightly flushed and looks positively _livid._

The lesson passes in relative peace, with only a few explosions occurring when somebody screwed up their potion. Sanji was thankfully catering to his captain's incompetence in potions.

Thankfully enough they were only present for approximately twenty minutes.

During their second period (herbology), a runner came from the school requesting Luffy and Brooks' presence in the Hospital wing.

When they arrived Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey were present. Madam Pomfrey muttered something about 'reckless children' and bustled about them, inspecting them for their previous injuries. Then she sat Luffy down on one of the beds and Professor McGonagall came closer to speak.

"Now Harry." She began. "How often do you get nightmares?"

"What? Why?" Luffy looked at her confusedly, heart beating a little faster in his chest.

"Because, there are potions that can stop you from getting those nightmares, if they're anything like the one you had the other night then I cannot sit idly by whilst one of my patients is suffering." Madam Pomfrey said.

"Okay. Three or four times a week, sometimes more, sometimes less." He still was confused as to why he would need something to help him sleep, but then again, sometimes Chopper had given him drugs to make him sleep easier whilst injured.

"Now, what I am going to give to you _must_ be used sparingly, no less than a mouthful per night," Madam Pomfrey handed him a large jar of purple liquid. "I cannot stress how detrimental this will be to your health if you drink more than a mouthful."

"Okay, I've got it, no more than a mouthful, but what exactly is it?"

"A sleeping draught, that one is quite strong so that it lasts for longer, in fact, it should last you almost all summer, I have discussed this matter with Professor Dumbledore and he agrees with me." After more promises as to _only_ take one mouthful per use, Poppy and Minerva allowed the two boys to leave.

"They're going to give me a heart attack one day Poppy." Minerva let out a sigh.

* * *

"Thank goodness we're excused from the rest of classes." Brook said, humming as he plucked the strings of his beloved violin.

They were currently situated on the Thousand Sunny; she had appeared as soon as Brook had awoken. She was docked alongside the Going Merry, for now they were sitting inside the aquarium room.

Brook had also discovered some of his older clothes and his cane sword, he was also delighted to discover that he could leave his body with his soul and could summon the winds from the world beyond with his cane sword.

"I still can't believe a room like this exists. It seems far too fantastical." Brook commented.

"Mm, it's a mystery room." Luffy smiled widely from his spot on the lounge.

They sat, listening to Brook gently work up songs from the recesses of his mind. But, eventually, everything came back to 'Bink's Sake', it was the default song.

"Luffy-san, if we stay any longer then I fear we may miss the feast." Brook gently shook his captain out of the slumber he had fallen into.

"Food!" And Brook had to sprint to keep up to his captain…

Sprinting was hard.

After many quick pit-stops to catch his breath, Brook arrived at the hall, he was only a couple of minutes after his captain, however, and quickly sat next to Usopp.

Zoro, Usopp and Hermione were all present and had quickly claimed seats around Luffy, Sanji wasn't there, most likely because he was a part of the preparations to cook and bake for the feast.

The decorations in the hall were silver and green but also scarlet and gold, it was to celebrate the end of the Slytherin win streak, well, technically they still won but they had to share the title, ergo breaking their _independent_ streak. "So we tied huh?" Luffy asked, not really interested, he only wanted the feast.

"Uh huh." Zoro grinned, "Honestly, Slytherin should have won, then we would've beaten shitty-cook."

Dumbledore strode in at that moment, decked in his usual garments, the chatter died almost immediately.

"Another year gone!" He said cheerfully from the podium he had elected to speak from. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast..." Luffy was drooling now, eyes lighting up at the prospect of the feast, Usopp hit him over the head.

"Listen to him Luffy, he could say something important." Usopp whispered to his friend.

"…The house cup needs awarding and the points stand thus: in third place, Hufflepuff, with three-hundred and fifty-two; in second, Ravenclaw have four hundred and twenty-six and, breaking Slytherin's seven-year streak, in first place we have a tie. Both Gryffindor and Slytherin have managed to both get four hundred and seventy-two."

A storm of aggressive cheering rose from the two rival houses.

"Yes, yes, well done Gryffindor and Slytherin." Said Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account."

The room went very still, except for Luffy who perked right up. "Oi!"

Everyone jolted at the noise, who would dare interrupt the Headmasters speech? The source of the noise came from a certain straw hatted boy. "We don't need the points old man! Let's get the feast started!"

Dumbledore stared at the boy in front of him who had just directly challenged his authority, but he felt no anger, instead, he felt pride.

One would think he was simply arrogant for his choice of words but Dumbledore understood, he did not want the praise, he simply did what he wanted. Albus Dumbledore bowed his head slightly at the boy, "Very well, let us tuck in!" He clapped his hands and food appeared, so much that it put the feast at the palaces in Alabasta and Fishman Island to shame.

Luffy immediately began piling food onto his plate, there! One of the cooked fish looked like something Sanji would cook. He added that to the amalgamation of meat atop his plate.

Usopp was eating leisurely, even when Luffy stole his food as there was a lot more where it came from.

Brook was also eating at a sedate pace; he was going to have to get this body of his into shape, eating like his captain did was not going to help him.

Zoro was eating some rice that Sanji had obviously prepared, it was pretty good (not that he'd ever let nosebleed know). He had also slipped his flasks of sake in and was currently making his way through the third flask of it.

Hermione watched them all in fascination, she had half a mind to make Luffy repent for his actions, but she understood on some level the embarrassment they were feeling.

And besides, none of his friends seemed particularly bothered by it, in fact, they seemed to be thankful for it.

But not everyone else agreed with their sentiments. Half of the Gryffindor table were angry, the chance to overtake Slytherin had been stolen from them, and by the boy-who-lived.

Some of the teachers were livid at the obvious disregard for authority the boy had displayed, Snape was glaring at him as if he thought that he could really kill with a glare. McGonagall had pursed her lips tightly, what was he doing? Hagrid was wondering what was happening. But some of the other teachers had smiled knowingly, damn that kid was admirable.

Flitwick found himself wiping at his eyes furiously, that kid was great.

"Sanji!" Luffy cried through his food, knowing his friend's aura anywhere.

"Hey guys. How do you like the food?" He asked, squeezing in between Luffy and Usopp.

"Ish dericious!" Luffy cried once more, the food distorting his words, some of the kids directly across from him promptly lost their appetite.

"Tastes as bad as always ero-cook." Zoro said from where he was sipping his… 'pumpkin juice'.

"What did you say shitty-swordsman?" And then they were really at it in the divide between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor.

"Pervert."

"Marimo."

"Nosebleed!"

"Shitty lost child bastard!"

"Grrr." They growled in perfect sync.

Suddenly they were fighting physically and everyone was moving away, giving them a clear space. When one of the teachers got up to intercept them Usopp suddenly shouted, "If you don't stop fighting then Luffy is going to eat all of the food."

They immediately shot horrified glances to the table and were terrified to see it all disappearing rapidly. "Luffy!" They shouted together and tackled their captain who currently had a stack of dishes beside him that he had pilfered.

He landed in his plate of meat and potato with an oomph! "Hey, you're gonna make me miss out on more food." He complained from his place under their combined force.

"Nuh uh!"

"Not happening!"

By now everyone had stopped their eating to stare at the monster trio. Suddenly the food on the plates disappeared. "No!" An anguished cry was heard from the straw hat boy.

Desert replaced it. "Cheer up Luffy-san, I still see desert! Not that I ha-. Oh wait, I do, yohohohoho!"

Usopp laughed along with Brook at his mistake with punning. Brook pulled out his violin. "Shall I captain?" He asked, at Luffy's mhm he began to play, it was a lively tune, one that had everyone smiling and nodding along.

But, as it had before, the melody eventually turned into Binks Sake and before long the five Mugiwara began to sing along.

The rest of the school watched on in confusion, what song was that? A few of the older teachers recognised it, every so often, in the Leaky Cauldron or in less savoury locations, you would get a few sailors of the sea. And after a few drinks were in them they began to sing that song.

They wondered how they learnt the song.

Luffy pushed the combine force of Sanji and Zoro off at Hermione's cry of "What the hell is this? Is that meat?"

Lo and behold a plate of meat cupcakes were sitting by her, it didn't last a second. Luffy jumped up and stretched to a normal length to reach his prize. "Meat!"

Treats such as it had popped up all over the tables, and every time they were consumed by Harry Potter.

What a weird child.

Thankfully the feast ended without any injuries (Madam Pomfrey would have had a fit) and everybody trudged off to bed, well, almost everyone. The Mugiwara filed out towards the mystery room, stomachs full of food and others with sake.

Hermione followed, eventually she raced out to the front and demanded that they stop.

"What's wrong Hermione?" Luffy asked, wondering what she was doing.

"Take me with you, wherever you sneak off at night, take me too!" She cried with a tad of desperation.

"Sure." Luffy smiled warmly at her, they had already told her the truth so what was the harm? "By the way, Snakey! Why are you following us?"

And there, in the shadows a figure cursed silently, how in god's name had he spotted him?

Luffy frowned at the spot where Snape was trying to hide, he was doing pretty good, but he hadn't expected someone like the demon trio to be able to sense him.

"Fine then." Luffy frowned once more before turning heel and continuing off to the hall where the mystery room was.

* * *

"So that's where they go." Snape muttered, still 'hiding', how had Potter noticed him?

But he now knew where they went, the Room of Requirement, not only that but apparently they did it every night, if Granger's words were anything to go by.

Why? What was the purpose of going to a room every night when they could simply bunk in one of their dormitories? He was certain that _one_ of the teachers wouldn't mind.

He scowled, that performance at dinner showed just how arrogant Potter was, so much like his father. But, if he really thought about it, his friends had seemed relieved and not impressed by his display.

That led him to the conclusion that they didn't like the recognition, but, Potter was just as reckless as his father, it was fair to assume that he was arrogant as well.

Either way, he didn't like him or his crew, it didn't matter that one of them was Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy and the other a serpent. They had both willingly chosen to become friends with that fiend.

And, it seemed like they had known each other for years, but how? It was to his knowledge that Potter had never met another wizard so how could he know not one but three other wizards?

And Ronald Weasley, another abnormality, judging by the way he acted at dinnertime, it seemed like he was an entirely different person.

But they were close together, that much he could see, he actually admired (and envied) them a little for the strong ties they shared.

Well, either way he had to report it to Dumbledore, who knows, it might be interesting to him.

* * *

"That was a delicious feast." Luffy sighed, patting his stomach.

They were entering the room and judging by Hermione's gasps this wasn't what she had expected.

"Sunny!" Usopp cried and ran towards their second ship, the second and last ship to ever sail the Grand Line.

"Now muscle-head over here can train with his weights without being an eyesore." Sanji jabbed his finger in Zoro's direction while simultaneously lighting a cigarette.

"Oh yeah? Well then I guess I'll just have to train in the kitchen dartbrow!" Zoro hurled back, shifting into an offensive position.

"Well then I'll just have to cook up your stupid brains marimo!"

And they began an all-out brawl between themselves, legs swinging and swords slicing.

"Shishishi!" Luffy had already claimed Merry as his seat and was watching the swordsman and cook fight on the sandy shore.

Hermione was still standing where the door used to be in shock, "What? What? What is this place?" She finally managed to say.

"It's a mystery room!" Luffy shouted.

"Why is there a beach inside the castle?"

"Because we had to let Merry and Sunny dock." Usopp explained.

"What are they?"

"The ships of course."

So the night passed quite quickly, Hermione was finally starting to believe them; she had spent the night firing questions at them like she was engaged in an interrogation.

They ended up in a dog pile on the sandy shore, worn out by their night escapade. And for once, (without the aid of drugs) everyone slept dreamlessly.

* * *

Luffy had completely forgotten about exams and was surprised to receive them quite so soon. To everybody's surprise he managed to _just_ scrape by with just over the passing mark (thank goodness for Hermione Granger), he had especially shone in the practical section. (He had almost completely failed potions).

Sanji flew through potions like it was a breeze and managed to pass every other subject.

Zoro was just as good as Luffy at the practical exams and also breezed through the written exams.

Usopp had aced herbology and charms and managed to score average marks on everything else.

Ron, or rather Brook managed to score average marks in all exams except for potions which he only _just_ managed to get over half.

Hermione, to nobody's surprise, managed to get top of the year with almost full marks on every exam.

Their final days spent together before the holidays were spent training harder than ever before and setting training regimes to follow.

Brook was especially adamant that he have a training schedule as he was quite far behind the rest of his nakama. "Shishishi, if you want, when we come back I can try and teach you Haki." Luffy suggested, having perfected everything aside from Armament – it just wouldn't come to him at will. "Usopp, you already have learnt observational now though so I can train you in the other aspects."

His suggestion was met with two very positives from Usopp and Brook. Brook also said he would ask Nami.

And then the day when they were supposed to be boarding the train arrived and Luffy was trying to shove everything in his trunk.

"You idiot." Sanji said from atop his own perfectly packed suitcase. "Just use your wand."

"Ahh, right!" So Luffy brought out his wand and told it to pack his suitcase.

One of his garments caught on fire. "What are you doing! No, it's not funny!" Luffy shouted while he tried to put out the fire.

"Luffy." Sanji began slowly. "Did you just tell your wand what to do?'

"Yeah, why?"

Sanji shook his head. "Only you…" he muttered.

Finally the fire was put out and Luffy was left with a smouldering school shirt, he shrugged. "Sanji, please!"

He sighed, _loudly._ "Fine, but just this once, you gotta learn how to do it yourself."

Sanji packed his captain's suitcase neatly so that everything fit. The note they had been given fluttered to the ground, it warned them not to use magic outside of school.

Sanji tossed the now crumpled up sheet of paper at his captain who caught it effortlessly, he opened it, eyes scanning the neat writing before shrugging and shoving it in his jean short pocket.

"You do are aware that we are supposed to be in uniform Luffy-san?" Brook asked, he had also already packed his suitcase.

Luffy glanced down at his usual outfit, the only change being that his shirt was buttoned up. He crossed his arms defensively, "So?"

"So don't complain to me when you get in trouble off Snape." Sanji warned, zipping up Luffy's now packed suitcase. "Let's go."

Hagrid took them across the water in their fleet, Luffy, Sanji, Usopp and Zoro all occupied one and Luffy sat atop the front raised part of the boat, feet dangling over the water.

They boarded the Hogwarts Express, quickly claiming one of the carriages as their own where they laughed, played and ate the meal Sanji had packed them.

"You guys." Luffy began, sounding unusually serious. "You better write, I know I can't very well but promise that you'll write."

"Of course captain." Zoro said from his corner, one eye opened lazily.

At his affirmative the rest were quick to respond and Luffy's smile turned into a blinding one. "Shishishi, I'll miss you all."

Before long everyone else was changing and they were pulling into platform nine and three quarters at King's Cross Station.

It took a ridiculously long time to actually get off the platform as an old wizard was only letting them go on in pairs and threes. Luffy didn't hesitate to complain about the arrangements, whining until Sanji kicked him.

"You should all come to my house yohohoho! It certainly is big enough." Brook smiled.

The demon trio passed through the gate, ignoring the various goodbyes Luffy received off people he had never even met.

"Luffy!" As soon as got over the other side he found himself with an armful of his navigator.

"Nami!" He hugged her tightly, ignoring the odd looks he received off muggles and wizards alike.

"Nami-swan!" Sanji twirled around the orange-haired girl, drinking in her sight in his perverted gaze.

"Oh, Sanji-san, I forgot to mention." Brook paused for effect. "I have seen her panties."

Sanji abruptly gained a nosebleed at the thought, "Oh no, young man, are you alright?"

Mrs Weasley raced over to where Sanji lay in a pool of his own blood.

"Tch, pervert." Zoro muttered. "And hello to the witch."

"Zoro, don't think that I've forgotten your debt, regardless of death." Nami replied, disentangling herself from her captain's rubber limbs.

Mrs Weasley was quite confused, since when did her daughter know these boys? "Oi, Mrs Weasley, thanks for the sweater and fudge." Luffy said, smiling at Brook and Nami's mother.

"Oh it was nothing, dear."

On the ground near her, one extremely perverted cook was thinking; _I will be able to watch Nami transform from this little caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. Each fleeting moment more lovely than the last._

And, as if hearing his thoughts, (he probably did at some level) Zoro stepped on Sanji's face. "Mmph!"

"Stop being weird." He said before turning to Luffy. "If you want you can come stay with me at some stage, just send your owl-thingy to 'Seamus Finnigan'."

"Thanks Zoro!" And Luffy threw himself at the older man who immediately dropped whatever he was holding (just his birdcage and trunk) to accommodate for his captain. "Shishishi."

"Dammit Luffy, you can't just do that." Zoro was understandably miffed, more annoyed with his reflexes than his captain, since when did he tell his arms to drop his trunk and owl?

"Shishishi." Was his only reply.

"Ready are you?"

It was Vernon, purple-faced, moustached and still looking furious at his nephew. But this time it was more for the friends he was messing about with rather than the fact that he was carrying an owl in a cage in a station full of ordinary people.

Luffy's nakama stiffened, that was _Luffy's_ uncle, aunt and cousin? They didn't look nice.

Petunia and Dudley looked terrified, hiding behind Vernon's massive frame.

At that moment a rather timid looking house elf walked over, accompanied by a nondescript looking butler, the butler walked straight up to Sanji. "Mr Draco, we are here to take you back to the manor."

"Give me a minute." Sanji replied, still focused in his fantasy world. "Ahh, Nami-chwan."

Another couple of people walked over, one who was obviously a wizard judging by the ridiculous muggle clothes she was wearing. Her mousy brown hair was swept to the side, "Seamus!"

The man was much subtler and looked in place, sandy hair the same shade as his son's, he grinned at their group of friends. "We are Seamus's parents, I'm John and my wife is Mary, who might you all be?"

"Ronald Weasley." Brook bowed slightly before them.

"Pleasure to meet you Ronald."

Greetings were exchanged and Neville's grandmother came up and scared them all, she seemed like a strict one. "Up to no good again I see? Eh? Mr Potter." She nodded in Luffy's direction before dragging her grandson away.

"I'll owl you all over the summer!" Usopp called over his shoulder.

"Bye Usopp!"

Finally, the only ones left were Brook, Nami and Luffy, wordlessly they hugged. "I'll hopefully see you both at your place!" He smiled widely at them and laughed.

"Don't do anything stupid Luffy or it's going straight on your debt." Nami warned, eyeing her captain with troubled eyes, she, and everyone else, could tell that he didn't want to go back to his house.

But there really wasn't much they could do so for now they would allow him to go, and later, they would probably kidnap him and hightail it back to the Burrow.

Vernon was getting very… _upset_ at being ignored. "Hurry up, boy, we haven't got all day." He walked away.

"Hey Luffy." Nami pulled on his arm. " _They_ don't know you can't do magic." She grinned mischievously, if his uncle was that nasty then some pranking and threatening was in order.

She remembered that every year Fred and George complained about that note, and she also knew that it was the student's responsibility to show it to their parents.

Comprehension dawned in Luffy's eyes and he smiled wider than before. "Oh, I'm going to have a great summer."

"Nami-san, you are quite devious." Brook commented.

"What did you call me?" And unfortunately for Brook this resulted in an egg atop his head.

"Shishishi! See ya's!" Luffy waved at the two Weasleys and finally turned away, trailing after his uncle.

He would be able to stretch in front of them and savour their reactions, he could probably get away with a lot of other little things too. After all, the Minsty of whatever had never picked up his stretching or anything else as 'illegal magic'.

Oh yes, he was going to have a wonderful summer.

 _Andddd, we're finished. (again), so imma get started on book two now that I am finally up to date, so thanks to anyone who's read this before for waiting patiently for me to binge the ever loving fuck out of One Piece. Ciao, I'll see y'all in book 2._


End file.
